Mike's Moral Quandry
by Levana Fay
Summary: JD AU. Mike saves Jenny in the diner and spirits her away to a foreign hospital. Will she survive to get the experimental treatment?
1. Chapter 1

Mike's Moral quandary.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Julian and Lydia.

Rating: T

Summary: JD AU. Mike saves Jenny in the diner and spirits her away to a foreign hospital. Will she survive the experimental treatment?

A.N.: I know, another AU for JD. They just pop in my mind and I have to write them down, lol. Hopefully by submitting them, I'll be more likely to update them! Got another on the way too, 4 JD AU's, Yikes.

Mike Franks clutched the steering wheel of his car apprehensively and cast a glance in his rear-view mirror. The only other occupant of the car was lying on the back seat, strapped in with every seat belt wrapped around her so she wouldn't slip off, due to his less than sedate driving pace. She was still unconscious. In some ways it made this easier, because she wouldn't ask questions that he didn't want to answer, like 'why are you doing this?', and 'why did you dress a corpse in my clothes?', but in some ways it made it difficult, because he couldn't carry her from the car to an aeroplane without causing an uproar, and his medical knowledge covered... um… mouth to mouth resuscitation and… yeah, that's pretty much it. He thanked God once more that his pension check was enough to cover renting a 'luxury' speed boat for a month. With luck, his friend and his wife would get her to the hospital in Europe so she could be cured, and then all that would be left would be telling Probie that she was alive.

He shook himself angrily from his wishful thinking and gritted his teeth. Hoping for a happy ending wasn't going to give him one, taking action would. He could see the blood beginning to seep through the impromptu 'bandages' he had put on her. She wouldn't last much longer. Who knew the coast in LA was so bloody far away? His phone began to vibrate so he flicked it open and put it to his ear, hoping there was no police nearby that would stop him.

"Franks? Where are you?" the voice of his friend sounded worried and that just made him more nervous. Had someone decided to stop boats from leaving? Had Gibbs figured out what he had done and come to take her back? He shook his head. _Focus_.

"Nearly there. Get your first aid kit out, Julian; she's been shot up pretty bad." Mike heard a female voice in the background and felt a little bit better; Lydia would take care of her. Lydia was Julian's wife and she was a trained nurse.

"Gotcha, I've got the engine running already for a head-start. Think she'll make it?"

"Just make sure you got a needle and thread in there." Mike grumbled, unwilling to voice his opinion on the off chance that fate decided to have a laugh with him, and snapped his phone shut. He cast another glance behind him and his stomach plummeted, making him push the accelerator further to the floor. She had lost most of the colour in her face and he couldn't see her breathing anymore. _Shit_.

Finally, after what felt like hours of driving, which was in reality more like ten minutes, he pulled in to the marina and drove at full speed through the car park and over to the pier, where Julian was waving from the boat and came to a sudden stop a foot from the water's edge. He threw open his door and jumped out, gesturing to Julian to come and help, since he was twenty years younger than him. His back wouldn't protest as much as Franks' would. His friend leaped on to the pier and raced over to Mike, who was busy unwrapping Jenny from the mess of seat belts. Once Mike had finished, he moved out of the way and Julian pulled her from the back seat in to his arms and then carried her on to the boat and disappeared below. He watched as Julian reappeared moments later.

"Lydia's with her. We better get going; she says it doesn't look good. Take care, Mike." Mike nodded and waved. If she said it was bad he didn't want to delay them anymore.

"I'll join you as soon as I can."

Julian waved and then raced to the helm to take the boat out of the marina and towards open seas. Mike breathed a small sigh of relief. At least one part of the plan went off easily. He turned back to the blood stained car and groaned. He'd have to burn it. _Great, more money down the drain_. He knew where he needed to go now. He needed to go meet Gibbs at the gas station, back near the desert and tell him she died. Well at least he'd have time to get his game face on before seeing him. This would be hard. He knew that Jethro had begun a relationship with her not even a month ago, to lose her so fast would be torture. At least if this treatment he'd read about worked, he would be able to reunite them. He shook himself from his oddly soppy thoughts and got back in his car. First things first, get _another_ car so he could get rid of this huge piece of… evidence.

*

The next day Mike set off to the gas station to meet Gibbs in his new, silver rental. He had had to go to a different rental company since the other had blamed _him_ for the 'accidental' fire that had engulfed his last ride, uncompromising gits. He turned in to the station a few seconds after Gibbs did and got out to join him inside. He had practiced what he would say to him all night to make it sound comforting and yet sorrowful, and he could truthfully say he'd failed miserably. He just couldn't keep the hope from uplifting his spirits and he knew Jethro would sense it. He cursed himself and decided to try and say as little as possible so he couldn't give much away. He knew that Gibbs would hate him for a while when he finally told him what he had done, but hopefully she would be alive and able to get him back in the good books soon after.

"What happened, Mike?" Gibbs began the conversation once they were seated at a small bar and Franks took a large swallow of Corona before trying to answer.

"She tried to protect you. Said she made a mistake. Someone turned up to Decker's funeral and asked for a Mr. Oshimaida. An op went wrong in Paris and someone who's supposed to be dead isn't." He nearly choked when he realised what he had just said, but thankfully Jethro overlooked it.

"We got out clean. There were no mistakes."

"Did you check?" He pressed the issue, trying to keep the discussion away from Jenny's death.

"Why were you there?"

"She called me a few days ago and asked for some help."

"_Did_ you help?" Gibbs' voice accused.

"I tried, and I'm not giving up now." He put all of his conviction into that one sentence and hoped that Jethro would allow him to help him. He might think that he had let her die, but he wouldn't turn away assistance. "If you want an apology-"

"I know better." Gibbs cut in bitterly.

"-I'm _sorry_, Probie." He looked directly at Jethro, so he knew that he meant it. Gibbs nodded minutely and then he straightened in his seat.

"I could use some back up…"

"You got it."

*

Mike watched the fire blazing in Jenny's home, destroying everything within and he mentally cringed. When she was better, she would kill them both for this. He hoped she had insured it; otherwise they would be paying her back until they both died of old age. Gibbs stood next to him, facing the fire and staring in to it, as if it would resurrect Jenny right in front of him. Franks' conscience prickled again as he looked upon the absolute sorrow reflected in Jethro's eyes. The loss of another woman that meant the world to him was breaking him, and Mike was suddenly concerned that _Jethro_ might not survive the trial, never mind her. He turned away from the inferno and grasped Gibbs' arm, pulling him away and down the street, before they were associated with the flames by the neighbours or passersby. He needed to get him home, or at least away from the potentially life threatening situation, not sure what frame of mind he was in. After all, he hadn't had his gun on him, hadn't even made a move for it when Svetlana had been about to shoot him. If he hadn't shown up when he had, he probably would've found him dead.

Mike pulled Jethro towards his house, stopping only to stick his nose up at Vance and let Jethro watch a TV running the news report of the fire, before continuing on. He knew that he was going to disappear down to his basement as soon as he walked through the door, so he let him go on ahead, before following him down. Gibbs was leaning against his boat with a bottle in his hand and he was staring. Just staring at the wood in front of him. Maybe he wasn't really seeing the wood, he was seeing the good times with Jenny. Mike's conscience couldn't take much more of this. He came down the stairs of the basement and watched him take a swig from the bottle.

"You ok, Probie?" He didn't get any response from him so he moved a little closer and repeated the question. Jethro took another swig of Bourbon, but he still received no answer. Mike began to get really worried and he moved over to Gibbs' desk, picked the lock and opened his hidden draw. He looked back at Jethro and took the ammo for his rifle, putting it in his pocket and then closing the drawer again. "Probie?" Still nothing.

Mike walked over to him and reached for his SIG, pausing an inch from the weapon strapped to his side, waiting for a reaction. Receiving none he removed the gun and emptied the bullets in to his hand, pocketing them and replacing the gun. The only reaction Gibbs gave was to take yet another swig of Bourbon. Mike decided enough was enough, his flight was soon and he didn't have the time to deal with Jethro's funk. He knew someone that did though. He flipped his phone open.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Mallard? Mike Franks."

"What can I do for you, Mr. Franks?"

"I got a bit of a problem, Gibbs is just staring into space, and he's not responding to me or anything, just standing and drinking. I've removed the ammo from his weapons, just in case. I have to leave now so I was hoping you could come over tomorrow and check he hasn't done something stupid."

"Oh my, of course I'll keep an eye on him. In fact, I'll come over now. Just to be safe. Thank you for telling me."

"Yep. Bye."

"Goodbye Mr. Franks." Mike snapped his phone shut and then gazed at Gibbs, willing him to turn to him and ask when his flight was, but he didn't even blink, he just raised the bottle to his lips once more and swallowed.

"I've got to go now, Gibbs." He turned to the stairs and climbed them to the top, and then he paused and cast one last glance to his protégé, watching him trying to drown himself in alcohol. "See you later, Probie."


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A.N.: This is the real Moral Quandary guys. I know it's a touchy subject, but that is the moral part. Please don't hate me, but I want to know what you think about what Mike should do. I have an idea but I need to know I've got the majority behind me, lol.

Mike got out of the rental car he had just acquired and walked towards the glass doors of the hospital. The flight had been murder; all he could think about was how Gibbs would be hurting from now until he told him she was alive, if she survived. Julian and Lydia were waiting for him inside. Apparently the treatment couldn't commence until her wounds healed over a little more. He shook his head and wandered over to the front desk.

"I'm here to see my daughter, Jenny Franks." The nurse looked up the information and then pointed him down the hall. He nodded his thanks and set off, spotting Julian about five minutes along the corridor.

"Hey Julian."

"Mike, you made it earlier than I thought."

"Yeah, the woman was easier to kill than I thought she would be. You don't have to stay much longer; I know your kids will be going stir crazy without you."

"It's ok, Mike. Lydia just got offered a job here so we'll be on hand throughout the entire treatment. The kids aren't kids anymore, they're nearly all in university now so they don't really mind our long periods of absence."

"Is she ok?"

"It was touch and go for a while when we were crossing the ocean but Lydia managed to stop the bleeding enough to get her here. She spent three hours in surgery and now she's resting." He looked down for a moment and then fiddled with his earlobe nervously. "She's in a coma, Mike. There was too much blood loss and stress on the body."

"Is that gonna be bad for the treatment?"

"They can still carry out the treatment; they just want you to know that she's going to wake up on her own time scale, if she wakes up." They walked through the door, in to her room and Mike stood by her bed. There were machines all around her, monitoring her heart rate, keeping her breathing and taking her blood pressure. He sat down in the chair next to the bed and watched her sleep.

"You gotta get through this, girl. Probie isn't doing so good… he's drinking. He almost got himself killed." He smiled sadly and took her hand, hoping that she would hear him and redouble her efforts to heal and get through the treatment, but he knew that nothing short of a miracle would allow her to hear him. Mike stayed at the hospital until visiting hours were over and then he left with Julian, who offered him a bed at his house. The two arrived in a matter of minutes, the house being only down the road from the hospital so Lydia could get there easier.

"Lydia will be at the hospital for another few hours, but I'll keep you company while you are hanging around. So how is Mexico treating you?"

"Was treating me fine until these young agents decided they needed my help every time they got stuck on a case. So how's Dilly?" Delilah was the oldest daughter of Julian and Lydia and she was the reason that Mike knew them. A child molester had kidnapped her and the case had been brought to the attention of NIS when it was revealed that the molester was a navy lieutenant. Mike had been the case agent at the time and he had managed to not only track down the molester, but kill him before he could assault Delilah. Ever since then he had kept in touch with Julian and Lydia, who were eternally grateful to him. Well he had finally called in the favour they owed him, for putting in a good word with a friend of his to get Delilah enrolled in the best university they could afford. His friend had been the dean at the time and he had kept an eye on her progress. Saving Delilah was not a favour, it was a duty, so there was nothing to repay there.

"She's due to graduate with a 4.0 this year." He could tell that her parents were ecstatic with the progress she had made, not only in her confidence, since she'd had major trust issues after her abduction, understandably, but in her academic studies. She had been a very high scorer in the IQ tests, and although she was nowhere near genius status, she was still the brightest kid Mike had ever met.

"That kid of yours is amazing."

"Yes, she really is. The other two aren't too bad either." The oldest child was Brody; he had already graduated with a 3.8 and was starting up his own practice in psychology. The youngest was Brianna, who was starting university next year. She wanted to be a vet and she was volunteering at the local practice to get more experience before her course began.

"They sure aren't. You're a very lucky man."

"I tell myself that every day." They laughed and then Mike felt his phone vibrating.

"Franks."

"Mr. Franks, its Dr. Mallard. I just thought I should let you know that Jethro is suffering from severe depression. When I arrived at his house, all of the drawers in the basement were cast on the floor. I think he was looking for bullets. He had managed to smash a bottle and cut his wrist trying to pick up the shards. I'm not sure if he is suicidal since I was present when he cut himself, and it was clearly an accident, however I will continue to monitor him and try to make him come to terms with Jennifer's' loss."

"Thanks for letting me know doc." Mike disconnected the call almost in a trance. Jethro might be suicidal? No, he was just drunk and trying to clean up his basement. Mike's conscience screamed at him to tell him, but if the treatment didn't work, he'd have to go through this again. It wasn't worth it. He didn't want to stay conscious for much longer so he bade Julian goodnight and retired to bed. Hopefully in the morning everything would be much clearer.

-

Mike woke up early, just in time to watch the sunrise on the balcony with a beer. This was 'Mike time', when he could just laze around and not bother about anyone but him. He enjoyed 'Mike time' until the sky brightened up considerably and the smell of frying bacon and eggs drifted out of the house from the kitchen. He jumped up from his lazy chair and made his way inside for what he knew Julian had made for him. it was nice having friends like them, he knew most people probably thought he didn't have friends but he liked to think that the people he did keep in touch with, were the ones worth knowing.

After breakfast they all decided to go with Lydia to the hospital, since she had to go to work. Mike and Julian went to Jenny's room as soon as they got there and they noticed she had a little more colour in her cheeks than when they had last seen her. Just then a nurse walked through the door.

"Mr. Franks?"

"That's me."

"Your wife-"

"Daughter."

"Sorry. Your daughter has come through the surgery very well and we are very pleased with her reaction to the drugs she is on. However, there is a problem." Mike felt his heart constrict.

"What kind of problem?"

"We were running her blood to make sure everything was in order to begin the treatment when something… unexpected came up." The nurse bit her lip. "Mr. Franks, your daughter is pregnant."

"Pregnant?" _Oh God, Probie…_

"Yes. How the foetus survived the shooting of the mother is nothing short of a miracle, which is why what I have to tell you is so… difficult." The nurse looked at Jenny for a moment, seeming to gather courage from the prone mother-to-be, and then she looked back at Mike. "I'm afraid the treatment cannot go ahead while there is a baby growing inside of her and she doesn't have long to live without it. This leaves you only a few options.

One: You give us permission to abort the pregnancy. This will allow us to begin the treatment in a matter of days and has the highest chance of survival for your daughter.

Two: You don't give us permission to abort the baby, in which case we will be forced to postpone the treatment until the baby is born, which will be over eight months from now. This will give the baby the highest chance for survival, but there is a strong chance she will die before bringing the baby to full term.

Three: You keep the baby inside her until it is big enough to have a decent chance for survival on its own and we place it in an incubator, and then begin the treatment. This option has a very low survival rate for both mother and baby.

The decision at the end of the day is yours. We can't wake her up and ask her since she is in a coma and short of finding the father…" Mike shook his head. "…You are the only one left with the power to decide. If it helps any, she is more than likely unaware that she is pregnant, so if you decide to abort it, she'll never have to know." The nurse obviously didn't like having to suggest abortion, her expression when she said it, was one he expected someone to have when they sucked a lemon.

Mike nodded absently, overwhelmed with responsibility for not just one life, but two. What would Jethro say if he found out that he had decided to abort his child? Mike shuddered. Thoughts of his own son raced across his mind and he felt sick for considering it. But what if the baby survived and she didn't? He couldn't keep it away from Jethro, but then he would have to tell him what he had done, how he had taken Jenny from him and then let her die… no. He couldn't choose. It was too much for him. What about option three? It had the smallest chance of survival for both of them, but he knew the baby came from two strong people, it would survive. Jenny however needed the treatment badly, it didn't matter how strong she was; the disease would win. He needed to think about her.

"How soon would the baby be able to survive on its own?"

"No sooner than seven months gestation."

"Seven months? So six months from now?" That was… a long time. "What would Jenny's chances be at that time?"

"She would only have a 40% chance of surviving to begin the treatment. Her chances of responding well to the treatment would be about 30%." The nurse gave him a sympathetic look and then decided on something. "I'll let you think it over for a while and run some more tests on the blood sample." She turned and left, leaving a distraught Mike with a rather stunned Julian.

"Well, that was the last thing I was expecting to hear." Julian said and Mike merely grunted in agreement. What the hell was he supposed to do?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Mike grinned at Gibbs as he walked in to the bullpen, just as they thought the case was going to hell. Well, more like swaggered in, since he had a contact that happened to know where their suspect was hiding. It was three months since Jenny had 'died' and Jethro had finally come out of his depression by throwing himself into his work with a vengeance. Every suspect was run down in person, every gun fought out of a suspects hand rather than intimidated out. Mike had received a very worried phone call from Dr. Mallard who told him that this case was going to be the death of Jethro. The suspect liked automatic weapons, lots of them, and had apparently stock piled them in a warehouse to sell on overseas. Gibbs had developed a fascination with the guy and was hoping to get a warrant to storm the place with just his three person team of DiNozzo, McGee and Ziva for back up. Mike shook his head. _I don't think so, Probie_. He walked up to Gibbs and clapped him on the shoulder, surprised by the muscle he encountered. Yikes, does he spend all his time working out to get in to life and death situations? As a marine, he had always had muscle, but this was ridiculous. He filed away that fact to talk to Ducky about later and then greeted him.

"Hi, Probie. Miss me?" he grinned and nearly winced at the odd, near smile that he received in return.

"Mike, what are you doing here?"

"I got information on your bad guy. Marco Vinetti, the poster boy for arms distribution in the Middle East. He gets half a mil per shipment since he stock piles for so long. The guy is not worried about being found by authorities. He just kills them so they look the other way out of self-preservation. I got a friend in the force down in Mexico who can give you the locations of his employee's homes so you can take them out before they arm themselves. Then it's just a case of swooping in and taking out Vinetti himself." Mike's grin widened at their amazed expressions and he waited for the usual, 'this-isn't-your-fight-but-thanks-anyway-Mike' conversation with Gibbs. And waited. And waited.

"Arms dealer got your tongue, Probie?" Gibbs glared at him, hurt flashing in his eyes and he stalked off, mentioning coffee on his way out the door. Franks looked around him at the surprised Agents. "What did I say?"

"Jenny had a thing about killing this arms dealer once." Ziva said, making Mike slap the back of his own head, wincing at the bruise that was there, and getting bigger ever since making his decision three months ago. He shook away the pain and sighed.

"Dr. Mallard?"

"Down in autopsy."

Mike nodded and walked away to the elevator, taking it to autopsy and stepping through the sliding doors. Ducky glanced up, surprised, and then stood to welcome his guest.

"Mr. Franks, you came very promptly."

"I never hang around when my probie is involved, call me Mike." Ducky nodded and stuck out his hand.

"Ducky and I'll be glad to tell you about my nickname at a later date."

"I noticed he's been working out."

"Sadly he does it every night. He exhausts himself to sleep then comes here to work and wherever possible, get himself hurt, and then he goes home to work out until he exhausts himself." Mike shook his head at Gibbs' behaviour. It was destructive in an odd way.

"When he lost Shannon and Kelly, he just went straight to looking down the barrel of his gun. This is strange behaviour for him. I don't know what could be going on." He sighed in frustration; if he had told him… he cleared his throat and then continued talking. "I came with information on their bad guy and he looked like I slapped him. Then I mentioned something about an arms dealer and he walks away in a huff."

"La Grenouille, the arms dealer Jennifer chased to the death. There is evidence that proves she killed him face to face, but that was a special case. He shouldn't act that way over every dealer."

"Well, I'll help him get this guy then I'll try talk to him. I'll have to reschedule my flight…" he walked out of autopsy to look for Gibbs, stopping in the bullpen for something else first.

"You McGee? The computer guy?" the young Agent in front of him nodded and smiled. He grunted in acknowledgement. "Get me a flight from here to Mexico in two days time. The name is Richard Kent." McGee nodded and rescheduled his flight for tomorrow to the next day. Mike said thanks and then left, following after Gibbs.

--

McGee sighed and dropped his head on the keyboard. Today was the worst day yet. Gibbs had shouted, actually shouted at Abby. They hadn't dared to go near him until they had had to. Abby had been distraught, crying all day and even fleeing to autopsy when Gibbs had gone back to see her. NCIS was such a mess now and so were the Agents. Tony and Ziva accepted every cross word and angry look as their due for failing to keep Jenny alive. They all went out at night to drink their way to the bottom of the strongest stuff they could find and it helped, until morning. Vance had at first been a nice boss, then he had split them up and they realised he had no feelings for them at all. They were just assets to him, not a family. Tim didn't know how Gibbs had managed to get them all back and some days, he wasn't sure why he had bothered. All he seemed to do was shout at them, or ignore them.

He jumped and pulled his head back up when his computer made noises, and he realised he had pressed buttons with his head. The computer had apparently completed the 'request' for a search of the name Richard Kent, and flight records over the last three months popped up. McGee groaned at his stupidity and was about to delete the search, when something stopped him. He wasn't sure what it was, call it a gut feeling that he must have picked up from Gibbs, but he instead enlarged the results to look through them. The records showed numerous flights to and from Mexico, but the other location wasn't DC, it was Europe, or Germany to be exact. Berlin to be very exact.

Confused and disturbed, McGee saved the search to a compartment in his computer that he used for very personal files and then cast a nervous look around the bullpen at Tony and Ziva, who were behind their own desks, bloodshot eyes fixed on their screens. He was glad they hadn't even tried to look over his shoulder, he wasn't sure he would have been able to get rid of it before they saw what was disturbing him about it. It wasn't where Mike was going; he was entitled to go where he wanted. It was when. He promised himself he would forget about it and then wipe the list from his computer if Mike went back to Mexico this time and stayed there but if he didn't, McGee would dig deeper.

The name Richard Kent and his extensive flight schedule had appeared the day Jenny had died.

--

Mike threw back the corona and watched as Jethro drank half a bottle of Bourbon as if it was water. Not good, not good at all. They were seated in his basement, in the space his boat usually occupied, sitting on upturned boxes and drinking the night away. They had found the employees of Vinetti and taken them down quickly, the authorities had enough on them alone to keep them in prison for a long time. Vinetti himself however, had been another matter. He had reacted fast and efficiently once his employees began disappearing, getting his shipment together and trying to disappear over the border with it in a huge truck. The LEO's had put together a blockade, but he had smashed through it and carried on unfazed. Gibbs and Mike had been in a car following the truck and they had planned initially to climb aboard and take him out, and then bring the truck to a stop, however Gibbs had decided it would be much more effective to shoot the truck up until it exploded in a huge ball of destruction, the shockwave sending their car off the road and into a tree. Franks was not happy, he had used his car. Another totalled rental in the pursuit of Gibbs' happiness. Fantastic. Gibbs hadn't been happy either; though he figured it was more because he survived the crash, than the fact he destroyed an entire stretch of motorway and killed the suspect.

Franks watched as Gibbs put a lid back on the Bourbon and then began working out. He dropped on his hands and did 200 press ups. Mike watched in equal parts of amazement at his drunken stamina and guilt, at what he had done to cause and perpetuate the pain that was driving him to do this to himself. He swallowed some more beer and opened his mouth, to tell Gibbs what he had been doing these past two months, but he wasn't drunk enough for the words to come out. Jethro finished his press ups and began doing 200 sit ups. Mike began to feel sick at the sight of all the contracting Probie's stomach must be doing, and with all that alcohol in there too. He polished off his corona and tried again.

"Probie…" Gibbs stopped mid sit up and looked at him angrily. The words paused in his throat and no matter what he tried, he couldn't get them out. If he told him now, he wouldn't get out alive. "I gotta go now, Probie."

Gibbs grunted and carried on working out, driving his body towards exhaustion and Mike shook his head at his own cowardice. He didn't look back as he left the house and made his way to the airport, catching his flight to Mexico and then booking a flight in two days time to Berlin. He needed to see Jenny was alright, but first he would see his daughter in law and her baby girl. After that, he would let Julian know he was coming to stay for a while longer than usual.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except Julian, Lydia and their family.

Mike stepped out of his rental into the glaring sunlight and locked the car door behind him. He pocketed the keys and walked into the hospital, walking purposefully straight down the corridors. He had been coming and going so often during the last three months that the staff all recognised him and said good morning, as they passed him on his way to get coffee. Once he had bought two coffees from the cafeteria, he carried the cups of steaming liquid through the hospital hallways up to Jenny's room. His friend Julian immediately jumped up from his seat next to the bed and took one cup from Mike's burning fingers, allowing him to close the door with much less difficulty than he had opening it.

"Thanks Mike, I really needed a caffeine jolt." He sighed and sat back down by Jenny's side. "It feels awful to say it, but sitting and waiting like this is really well… boring." Mike chuckled and took a swig of his coffee, walking to the bed and sitting in the vacant chair next to Julian.

"She's getting big, isn't she?" Mike gazed at Jenny's rounding stomach, the baby growing safe inside.

"Yeah. Dr. Hale said she would be in later; she has a theory to test. It's nothing bad so don't worry." Julian added hastily as Mike turned his slightly panicked and unimpressed gaze to him.

"She's not an experiment." He grumbled.

"I know that and so do they. I don't mean they are going to test something on her, I mean she just wants to see if a hunch was right." Mike grunted again and took a long swallow of his coffee. His nerves were on edge with all of the secrecy surrounding Jenny and now his own life, since he was here so often checking up on her.

He closed his eyes and thought back to what had become the most difficult decision of his life. He had taken the day to think about those three options the nurse, Nurse Adelaide, had given him. It was too big of a matter to simply close his eyes and pick one, it needed serious consideration and he had done it. He had gone through every pro and con to each option and the chances of her surviving to get the treatment and he still hadn't been able to decide. He had come in early the next morning and walked into a heavily pregnant woman, literally. He had been preoccupied but he still had enough presence of mind to apologise to her. She had been so nice that when she had offered to let him feel the baby kick, he couldn't refuse. As soon as he felt the gentle rhythmic fluttering from inside the lady's womb, he knew he couldn't abort Jenny's baby. What right did he really have to decide to kill a baby that bore no blood relation to him? He had taken lives before in the line of duty, but they had always had a chance to turn the tables in their favour, the baby didn't. It was innocent in this, it's only wrong doing was turning up at that particular time. He had realised then that he couldn't take an innocent life, so the only course of action was to go with option three. He needed to look out for both mother _and_ child, and that option was the best way to do it.

Mike sighed; this was part of what he had missed with his own son. He generally thought of all the years his boy had spent growing up and how much he wished he had been there for him, but seeing Jenny like this just brought back memories of his lover. She had gone through the pregnancy without him, and for some reason, this part now seemed like the most important. He would never have been able to walk away from her, not if she had stuck around long enough for him to see this phase. He knew that he could have potentially left her if he had found out at a later point, because it wouldn't have seemed as real. This part though, where he could see the stomach expanding to make room for the baby, this brought it home.

This was what Jethro had seen with Shannon when she had been expecting Kelly, and this was what he was currently missing with Jenny, thanks to Mike's cowardice. He sighed, his insides squirming once again, a strange burning in his stomach beginning as he thought about how he had left Jethro, destroying himself with unnecessary risk taking. Mike knew it was stress causing the burning, both Julian and Lydia had been doing their best to take his mind off of the pressure that he had been feeling since deciding on option three. They told him that he was in danger of giving himself a stomach ulcer, which with his penchant for alcohol, could be disastrous for him. He had seriously considered telling Jethro about his Jenny and their baby, but the longer he left it, the harder it was to bring it up. He wasn't even sure what it would achieve. Did he only want to tell Jethro what was going on to absolve himself of the guilt? Or did he genuinely want to let the cat out of the bag because he thought it was the right thing to do?

The doctor, Dr. Hale, wandered in at that moment and pulled in the ultrasound equipment behind her.

"Hello Mr. Franks, it's been a while since you were here last. Are you finally ready to see the ultrasound? Julian here didn't want to see this without you." She shook her blonde head in amusement as Julian focussed completely on his coffee to hide his embarrassment. "I just want to test a theory I have on your daughters' pregnancy if I may?" Mike nodded.

"Of course, feel free."

She smiled and lowered the blanket covering Jenny to just beneath her bump and lifted her gown to just above the bump. She then squeezed some gel onto her stomach and plugged in the ultrasound machine. She picked up the wand and pressed it on the gel, gently moving it around on Jenny's enlarged stomach. The picture came alive and they could see a brief outline of a strange shape at first, then nothing, then something as the doctor adjusted the wands' position on her stomach.

"There is the head… and the body, two arms and… three legs?" She moved the wand down around the side of the belly and the picture distorted, before clearing up. "Two heads, two separate bodies… congratulations, its twins! Would you like to know the sexes?"

"Twins? No thank you."

Mike swallowed in gratitude to whatever higher power seemed to be looking out for him this year. He couldn't believe it, twins! He turned green at the realisation that if he had gone with the abortion, he would have been killing two innocent lives, rather than just one. He had never been so happy to walk into someone, as he was now when he thought about the turning point in his decision making process. Until then it had all been about 'what is Jethro going to do to me if both his lover and his child die or if only one of them survives?' If he hadn't stumbled into that pregnant lady, he may have made the biggest mistake of his life.

"Hmm… looks monochorionic…" she glanced at Mike and clarified. "Identical twins sharing a placenta. They appear to be about 15 weeks." She frowned at something she saw on the monitor and pressed the wand closer to the middle of Jenny's abdomen. Mike watched the picture on the screen with interest; the babies were both clearly defined. Then Dr. Hale pulled the wand away and wiped it, then wiped away the gel from Jenny's stomach. "Well I have a few test results to look at, so I'll be back soon."

"Are the babies ok?"

"They are developing well." Mike felt his stomach drop at the evasive answer. Something wasn't right with the babies, he knew it. The doctor left, leaving the equipment in the room, like she was going to come back to do another and Mike sat heavily next to Julian.

"Something is wrong with them, and she knows it."

--

McGee tapped away at his keyboard, secretly watching everyone around him to make sure no one was going to sneak up on him and see what he was doing. He pulled up his search into the name Richard Kent and saw with interest that another flight had been taken from Mexico to Berlin, just that morning. Tim shook his head, what could Mike be doing in Berlin? Did he really want to know? Was it really important or was he just relocating to another continent? McGee couldn't decide what to do, should he ignore it? No, he couldn't do that. This had caught his attention for a reason and like Gibbs, he didn't believe in coincidences. Maybe he could find out what he was doing by searching for this Richard Kent in electronic registers in Berlin. He typed away and found a handful of Richard Kent's all over Berlin, all of them where at the wrong times though. He sighed in frustration, realising that he wanted something to pop up. Why couldn't he just squash the hope that had sprung into his heart when he had seen the dates of Mike's flights? The chance to see Abby smile happily, to see Tony and Ziva bantering like usual, to see Gibbs bring Abby Caf-Pow's and actually give a damn about them all again. It was something that he couldn't help but hope for, because he knew that if Mike was hiding what he thought he was, all that would be possible.

Turning back to his search, he began thinking. Could he have used his own name? It didn't hurt to try. He typed in Mike Franks and looked around warily as the search commenced. Could he get fired for hacking into all of these registers? Probably, so best to not get caught. His computer beeped at him and he jumped, looking around wildly to make sure no one was looking at him, while trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Mike Franks had registered at a hospital in Berlin, and he wasn't the only one. McGee sat back in his chair and stared blankly at his computer monitor.

Mike had checked in his 'daughter', Jenny Franks.

--

The heart monitor attached to Jenny began to make erratic sounds. Mike and Julian both jumped up from their seats and pushed the panic button. Dr. Hale still hadn't returned and it had been two hours since she had left, Mike's blood pressure seemed to be spiking, never mind Jenny's. The alarm blared and some nurses rushed through the door and came over to her. They paged Dr. Hale and began taking all kinds of samples and telling other nurses to run tests. Mike sat down next to Julian as the blur of medical staff continued to speak in their 'foreign medical mumbo-jumbo' and he waited for Dr. Hale to show up and tell him what the hell was going on. After a few tense moments she stormed in and listened to everything the nurses told her, understanding the rubbish they seemed to be coming out with better than Julian, who was married to a nurse. She bent over Jenny for a few moments and began feeling the bump, searching for something. She straightened after a few tense moments and looked Mike in the eyes, her face open with a little foreboding.

"The mother seems to have reacted to the status of her children. It seems there is a problem." Mike groaned, he was far too old for this. He reached for Jenny's hand and gave her a piece of his mind.

"You gotta cut me some slack girl, I can't keep making these kinds of decisions, and the responsibility is something I never asked for. Why can't you take pity on an old man and have a successful and trouble free pregnancy?" with that off his chest Mike waited to hear about the next disaster waiting to happen.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except Julian, Lydia, Dr. Hale, nurse Adelaide and the twins.

Dr. Hale took a deep breath and then told Mike what exactly was wrong with Jenny and her babies.

"Jenny's heart monitor picked up that she was in a certain amount of pain. We tested and found that the location of the discomfort is the abdomen. Her scar tissue from the gunshots she received have been put under quite a lot of strain due to the amount her stomach has expanded to make room for the babies. It is also a cause for concern in itself. She could split the scar tissue if she expands much more this fast. Also, even though the amount a woman's stomach can grow is different from woman to woman, she shouldn't be this big this early on, not even with twins. That was the theory I had to test. There is a lot of weight gain due to excess amniotic fluid being produced by one of the twins. I found on the ultrasound, a clear indication that there is a distinct difference between them.

The babies are diamniotic, which means they each have their own birth sac and their own fluid, but one is creating more than it should. The condition is known as TTTS; Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. It only occurs in monochorionic pregnancies, where the babies are identical twins and therefore share a placenta. It happens when the blood vessels in the placenta go predominantly to one twin, so the other gets the bare minimum to survive. Due to the pregnancy being less than 26 weeks, there is a chance of severe diabetes if they survive without intervention, which is **highly** doubtful.

There are a few options for treatment of this condition: treatment through adjustment of the blood supply, or treatment through adjustment of amniotic fluid. There are two treatments for both of these options." She paused to draw a breath and Mike jumped in before she could start rattling off more information. He really couldn't handle another decision time with multiple treatment choices. Once was definitely enough.

"Yeah, you know what doc? Just tell me which one gives the best chances overall. I don't think my heart can take another huge decision making." Dr. Hale smiled and weighed her answer.

"Fetoscopy, or fetoscopic laser ablation. We have the equipment in the hospital so she won't need to be moved somewhere else. It uses a laser to coagulate the blood in some of the blood vessels in the placenta branch of the recipient twin to stop most of the blood getting to it, so the donor twin can get an equal share of the blood supply. This gives a 90% chance that one twin will survive and 70% that both will." Mike nodded in slight relief; those odds were quite good.

"So when can you do it? I mean the sooner the better, right?"

"There are risks involved, Mr. Franks. If the laser is activated in the wrong place, or one of the babies' moves, the beam could hit something vital, or even rupture the sac and kill the babies." Mike nodded.

"I understand all that, but doing nothing is certain death for the babies, right?"

"Well, it's a 90-100% mortality rate, so pretty much, yes."

"Well, whenever you are ready, doc." He tried to sound upbeat and happy, but he was screaming inside. The odds were good, but there was still a chance they could do some damage, and from the sounds of it, any damage would be serious. Mike was seriously considering calling Gibbs and telling him, just in case it was the last chance he would get to see his children. But then that would be tantamount to torture wouldn't it? Jenny would know that she had been pregnant now though, the procedure they were about to perform would be put in her medical records. If she woke up, he wanted to be able to tell her something about them.

"Ok, page theatre and then let's wheel her down there." Dr. Hale ushered the nurses around her, getting them to push the bed and out of the room carefully, so they didn't jolt the mother or the babies. Mike needed to ask her something, the urgency of the simple question propelling him out into the corridor after them to call Dr. Hale back.

"Wait, just in case something happens, what are they?" She gave him an encouraging smile.

"Baby girls." Mike stopped in the corridor and watched them wheel Jenny and her girls away. Two more girls for you, Gunny, he thought sadly. Jethro should be here with them, he should be able to watch them grow inside his woman, not throwing his life away by taking bigger and bigger risks every day. Mike took out his phone and stared at it, debating what to do. Should he call him? And say what? Your lover is in a coma and your twin girls are killing each other in the womb? He shook his head and closed his eyes, reaching down to put his phone in his pocket, but stopping when it began to ring. _No way_. He lifted the phone to his ear and tentatively answered it.

"Franks."

--

Special Agent Timothy McGee dragged his eyes away from the computer screen in front of him. It was far too much of a coincidence for Mike to check in his daughter that no one knew he had, on the day that Jenny died, who happened to also be called Jenny. He closed his eyes tightly and then opened them, almost willing the information to change. Nope, still the same. He took a deep breath, now he had to decide what to do with the information. Should he ignore it? And then find out that if he had done something she could still be alive? No thanks, he could see what that kind of knowledge was doing to Tony and Ziva, he didn't want to join the alcoholics club every night. So should he tell someone? He imagined telling Gibbs that she was alive, only to find out that the woman really was Franks' daughter and he was then summarily ripped apart by Gibbs. No, he couldn't tell anyone about this, at least not until he had something definite to tell them. He needed to speak to Franks; he had to find out if his suspicions were correct. Only then could he say something. Always double check.

McGee nodded to himself and saved the searches he had done in to Franks and then stood, only to realise he didn't have the retired Agents' number. _Great_. Well, Gibbs probably has it, but he couldn't get it off him without him asking too many questions. Ducky! Franks had gone down to talk to Ducky, maybe he had his number. Tim's smile came back in full force and he walked past Tony and Ziva, who were trying to focus their perpetually hung over selves on the information before them, and took the elevator down to autopsy. The doors opened and Jimmy almost walked straight in to him.

"Oh! Sorry." They said it simultaneously and McGee moved out of his way allowing the Assistant ME to enter the lift, presumably taking something to Abby. Tim walked into autopsy and wandered over to Ducky, who was bent over a cadaver.

"That was fast Mr. Palmer-"

"It's just me Ducky. Listen, I need a favour."

"What kind of favour, Timothy?"

"Do you have Mike Franks' phone number? I really need it."

"Yes, though it isn't really mine to give out."

"Please Ducky, it's important." Ducky's eyes widened a little in dread.

"How important?"

"Gibbs is fine Ducky, well he's as fine as usual nowadays." _Another reason to do what you are going to do Tim_, he thought. Ducky nodded and then walked over to the sinks to take off his gloves and wash his hands. McGee waited patiently for the elderly ME to clean up and then followed him to his desk, where they both pulled out their phones. Ducky recited the number and Tim saved it to his phone, thankful that at least part of his plan of action had worked.

"Thank you Ducky." He walked purposefully out of autopsy and into the emergency stairwell, knowing that not many people were likely to walk in on him there, unless Gibbs was using the elevator as a conference room again. He dialled the number and waited apprehensively to see if he would pick up.

"_Franks_." McGee exhaled in relief and then decided to jump straight into the conversation.

"Hello Mr. Franks, its Special Agent McGee-"

"_Has something happened to Gibbs?_"

"What? No, I actually called to talk to you about-"

"_If Gibbs is fine, why are you calling me?_"

"Well, Mr. Franks, if you would just let me explain-"

"_I'm hanging up._"

"How's Berlin?!" McGee shouted out desperately, to stop him hanging up on him. There was silence on the other end for a few seconds.

"_OK boy, you got my attention._" McGee let out a nervous breath and tried to collect the facts in his mind.

"Look, I know you have been travelling to Berlin since Director Shepard died; I also know that you checked in your fictitious daughter, named Jenny, at a hospital there. I don't think I'm making too giant a leap to assume that those Jenny's are one and the same, right?" Mike was silent for a few moments and McGee was beginning to think he had hung up on him.

"_What do you expect to do with that knowledge?_"

"Bring her home, or tell Gibbs that she is alive and safe in Berlin-"

"_She's not. She's not safe; she has a life threatening disease and is currently in a coma. The treatment she was supposed to be getting has been delayed so there is no guarantee she will live. Do you want to tell Gibbs that his woman is alive so he can come here and watch her die? If you think he's bad now, how do you think he'll be after losing her again? If you want to do Gibbs a favour, keep this to yourself. If she pulls through the treatment, I'll tell him myself. You just have to keep him alive and as unscathed as possible. He's gonna need those arms of his later…_" McGee stared at his phone confused.

"For what?"

"_Nothing. Can I count on your silence, Special Agent McGee?_" McGee nodded, then realised he couldn't see the gesture and replied.

"Yes Mr. Franks."

"_Good._" He hung up the phone and McGee stared at it, his good mood destroyed. There was only a faint glimmer of hope now, and he had no control over it at all. He sat on the steps and buried his head in his hands miserably.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Timothy McGee picked himself up off of the stairs and took a deep breath, letting it out sharply in an attempt to relieve a little of the stress he had accumulated in the last few minutes. Jenny was alive, Mike Franks had admitted that to him, but she was dying and her treatment had been postponed. He winced, he should have asked why, he should have asked when she will get it, but he had been too stunned by Mike's words. He shook his head dejectedly; his plan for making the family whole again was over before it got off the ground. He pushed his phone in to his pocket angrily. What did Mike think he was doing? He should never have kept Gibbs out of the loop like this; they had been in a strong (supposedly secret) relationship and thinking she is dead is killing him. How did Mike even get her out of the country? He must have been the one to swap the bodies at the dinner, who was the woman he had replaced her with? Was there a family out there mourning their mother, daughter or sister whose body was never found? How had he been able to look at Gibbs afterwards without feeling guilty at what he was doing? And what could he possibly mean by 'he's going to need those arms later'? McGee ran his hand over his face and sighed again. How was _he_ going to keep this from Gibbs?

He steeled his nerves and walked out of the emergency stairwell and across to the elevator. He needed to check on Gibbs, it was the only thing he could do for him now. He stepped into the lift and pressed the button for the bullpen, wondering if anyone had even noticed his absence. He smiled to himself, in the old days he couldn't sneeze without a comment from DiNozzo and a nickname like McSneezy or McMucus, but not anymore. Tony never said anything like that these days, he just got angry and stormed off as if he expected everyone to tell him he was a failure and it was his fault Jenny was dead… Tim reached out and snagged the emergency stop button, plunging the lift into darkness as guilt began consuming him. Tony and Ziva were still reliving the trip to LA, wondering what they could have done differently and whether not letting Jenny go off alone would have kept her alive or just got each other killed. He was going to have to work in that bullpen with all those that were the most affected by Jenny's murder, and he couldn't tell them a thing. When Tony and Ziva had walked into the diner and found Jenny's dead body, how had they missed the fact the woman wasn't her? Franks had contacts, but surely even he must have been stumped by genetics to a certain degree. Had they not been able to look at her face? Did they see the red hair and the clothes she had worn and assume it was her? Maybe there was a way he could help them, a way he could let them know that it wasn't their fault, that Jenny was alive. He scoffed and dismissed the thought. She may still die, he couldn't tell them anymore then he could tell Gibbs. He flicked the switch and the lights came back on, the lift moving back up. Get a grip Tim; he thought to himself, nothing has changed so just act natural. The lift stopped and he moved to get out, the doors opening before him and he walked out briskly, colliding with a solid Gothic mass and tripping over his feet as he tried, and failed, to stay upright. He reached out, grabbing for the nearest thing, which happened to be Abby, knocking them both to the floor.

"Ow! Timmy, watch it!"

McGee stilled and gazed down at Abby, who lay beneath him looking a little dazed. She really was a beautiful woman, and he had to admit to himself, she was his weakness. Her ability to make him feel like the only man in the world, and the fact she didn't look at him like he had gone insane when he was in geek mode just made his feelings for her all the more potent. He couldn't stop the grin that appeared on his face as he watched her rub the back of her head where it had hit the floor. Abby focussed and fixed her stern eyes on him, before slapping the back of his head sharply. He grimaced as he felt the points of her spiked bracelet impact his skin and rolled off of her, pulling his legs out from between the doors of the lift which were trying to close around his feet.

"Sorry Abby, I didn't see you, I thought it was my stop." She cleared her expression.

"Oh so you weren't coming to see me?" she asked innocently.

"No." she raised her eyebrows at him and he hurriedly tried to correct himself. "Well, I mean I was _going_ to come and see you, I was just going up to the bullpen first, see I had to get something from Ducky and-" He paused. _Damn it!_ He had almost told her everything he wasn't supposed to say!

"'And'? What did you get from Ducky?" he racked his brain, trying to think of something he would go see Ducky about. He perked up as the perfect thing came to mind.

"A… second opinion… about my… Poison Ivy. Again." She gave him a sympathetic look.

"Again McGee?! You really have to stop hunting in the undergrowth… why were you anyway? Case?"

"Erm… no." If Abby asked one of the others, they wouldn't support him. _What to tell her…_ "I had to retrieve a ball for Jethro. He lost it at the park and I found it in an Ivy patch." Her gaze hardened.

"You didn't give it back to him, did you?" Oh Abby, always more concerned for the dog than him.

"Of course not Abby, I carried it home and then washed it and threw it away." Quizzical eyes met his.

"You washed it?" he nodded.

"Yeah, in case any Racoons or something find it in the garbage." She grinned at him and gave him a hug.

"Oh Timmy you are so sweet!" _Yes, yes I am_, he thought, blissfully sinking into the warm Abby-hug only him and Ducky now received.

--

Mike paced the small room impatiently, muttering curses and prayers alternatively to whoever would listen and then assuring the deities they weren't bullet proof, just in case they were ignoring him. He wasn't a religious man, far from it, but he wanted Jenny and the baby girls inside her to have the best chance at survival, and if that meant showing a little humility, he was going to do it, swearing and rebelling all the way. That was just his nature and he wasn't going to change it. It was too late in life for something like that. Julian threw down his magazine that Lydia had brought him earlier (she had heard about the operation and knew he would be staying with Mike until it was over).

"Would you please stop pacing Mike? You're making me dizzy. Oh and I doubt Aphrodite can help Jenny recover, she is the goddess of love, beauty and sexuality, not health." Julian smiled a little as he said it. Trust Mike to ask the wrong Deity for help. Mike stopped pacing and gave him a curious look. He didn't know which god was which, he was just praying to whoever he could remember from his history lessons in school. That was a _long_ time ago.

"So I don't remember all of the names. If one of them can swing the vote in Jenny's favour that's all that counts, and who better than Aphrodite?" he challenged. Julian was younger than him, so his history was more than likely fresh in his mind, but his seemed more logical. _Chauvinist,_ part of his mind accused, and the other part happily agreed with it.

"Try Asclepius, he is the god of Medicine and he's the one that the Medical profession favours. In fact you could pray to Hygieia or Aceso, they were two of his daughters and are more likely to help a woman than-" Mike's face had gone completely blank and he shook his head before rudely cutting Julian off.

"What _are_ you talking about?"

"Never mind. I hope Aphrodite serves you well." Julian picked his magazine back up and pointedly ignored Mike, reading the next article like it was the last one on earth. Franks shook his head and sat on the chair next to his friend.

"What could be taking so long? It was supposed to be just a laser to cut off some blood vessels." His exasperation was loud and clear, and the more anxious he felt, the angrier he became. Had something gone terribly wrong in there?

"I'm sure nothing bad has happened Mike, it just might take a while to position the beam."

"An hour to position a beam?! How hard could it be?"

"Relax Mike. If you get agitated, Jenny will when she gets back and that will cause problems with the babies."

"Yeah, if she really can 'sense the mood of the room', which I don't think she can. It's just something you medical people made up to make people easier to deal with!" Julian sighed and put down his magazine, then turned to look at Mike.

"I know you are worried, but taking it out on me will just make you more upset later." Franks raised an eyebrow at him and Julian grinned. "You know, I forgot who I was talking to. Fret if it makes you feel better."

Just then the doors slammed open and the nurses wheeled Jenny's bed back in to the room, the bump looking a little bit smaller, making Mike's heart falter and his breath to stop. Dr. Hale approached him with a big smile on her face and he allowed himself to breath normally.

"How did it go?"

"The Fetoscopic laser ablation was a success. Since there was quite a lot of fluid in one sac we drained a little away but only a small amount. That's what took so long I'm afraid; we had to be very careful not to cause anymore distress. The blood supply is now as equally shared as we can make it so enlargement shouldn't be a problem. They should be perfectly fine now. Of course we will be checking up on her with Ultrasound scans more frequently now, but the babies are both perfectly healthy."

"So… no diabetes? Or haemophilia?" Dr. Hale rolled her eyes at Julian, who picked up his magazine and hid behind it.

"No Mr. Franks. They are fine!" she emphasized her words to reassure him that everything was going to be completely ok, before levelling her gaze at Julian. "Your wife will hear about you telling horror stories to a terrified Father and Grandfather." Julian looked both indignant and slightly scared at that.

"He asked what it could result in so I just looked it up on my I-phone! He jumped to that conclusion." She shook her head and left, and the other nurses all filed out after hooking Jenny back up to the machines and IV, leaving Mike and Julian alone with the three occupants of the bed.

"Huh, told you Aphrodite would help. We could cure cancer with more beautiful women on our side." Julian looked at him incredulously.

"Grow up Mike." Franks grinned widely and clapped his friend on the back.

"Can't, I'm too old."


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A.N.: Three months have passed since the last chapter. Didn't think anyone would be interested in 'hmm looks like Jenny's stomach has grown another centimetre today' so I skipped ahead, lol.

Timothy McGee panted, his leg muscles protesting the long pursuit after the suspect they were currently chasing, and he was impressed with himself to see he was right behind Gibbs, while Tony and Ziva were lagging behind, their features blurred, and the gap between them was getting bigger. He had been working out more often than normal since he had so much aggression to work off lately, the aggression stemming from his frustration at being so alone. He had been avoiding everyone at work over the last three months, his guilt at knowing something they didn't consuming him. He had been avoiding Abby too. It hurt him to do it, seeing Abby was the highlight of his day and one of the reasons he even bothered to go to work some days. When he's down in her lab with her, he could make believe that nothing about their family had changed, that Gibbs was going to storm in any minute, grumbling under his breath about the red haired Lady Director's latest decision that he didn't agree with. Every time a day had gone by without it happening had been a knife to his heart, like the hurt look in Abby's eyes now. Whenever she came up to the bullpen because no one but Ducky and Palmer came to see her anymore, the knife in his heart twisted, but he had to do it. He would tell her everything if she asked him to, and he couldn't chance it. So he had taken his irritation at how his life had been turned upside down to the gym, his actions mirroring Gibbs' own on a night, except McGee knew his limits.

He had taken it upon himself to find out who was in Jenny's grave and after much digging he had found her. It was a hooker from New Orleans, chosen because of her strong resemblance to Jenny. She'd had no family or friends, and had met her end because she had taken the wrong guy to bed one night, and she had been shot to death because of it. Mike had had her body transferred to LA when he had gotten his flight to meet Jenny. He had known she wouldn't call him for a reason other than mortal peril. McGee had the feeling that Gibbs had known of her illness, which meant that Mike must've too. He had planned his snatch down to the last detail, the opportunity to take her abroad the only variable. Tim was impressed that Mike had managed to pull it off, but he was less impressed with the result. He had however done his duty regardless of his personal feelings; he had so far kept Gibbs out of the line of fire and the older, but annoyingly fitter, Agent was unscathed from all of the dangerous situations that he threw himself into. The felon they were chasing in what was fast becoming a marathon, had robbed a bank, killed his partner and three police officers, and wounded two more trying to make a break for it. They were there because his partner had been a naval officer and they had been investigating his murder and had consequently been dragged into the chase.

The man up ahead of them finally stopped running, knowing he couldn't get away from them, and then turned, his gun raised in his hands and his finger squeezing the trigger. McGee threw himself at his boss as the felon targeted him, bringing Gibbs to the ground and feeling the skin of his shoulder tear, a bullet winging him. Gibbs pulled out his gun and put one through the criminals head, dropping him and then securing the gun. He walked swiftly to Tim and looked down at him.

"You hit McGee?" The careless tone, combined with the pain from the deep furrow that the bullet had put in his shoulder and all the stress and frustration that had built up over the last three months, caused Tim to explode at Gibbs, his words streaming from his mouth before he could stop them.

"Like you care!" Gibbs recoiled from the young tech, his eyes shutting down, and the fire of anger blazing through. McGee carried on, unable to stop the flow now that the dam had been released. "Like you care if any of us are alright! You just see your own pain! I've tried to help you, we all have but now I realise that nothing we have done has made a difference to you!" He stood up just as Tony and Ziva arrived on the scene, their tired, red eyes glancing between the two warily. "Have you even noticed the suffering of your senior Agents?" Tim gestured at Tony and Ziva, their half hung-over selves thinning from lack of appetite, their self loathing evident on the pained faces. "You used to treat us like family, but now we seem to be less than dog crap on your shoe. Have you even _seen_ Abby this month?" McGee pressed his free hand to his wound to stem the bleeding, Tony and Ziva both moving to help him, leaving Gibbs staring at them, his soul deep anguish clear in his eyes. McGee finally had the courage to say what he needed to; the only thing that could help Gibbs now was the secret he had been forbidden to share, but he couldn't hold it back anymore. "Mike Franks is in a hospital in Berlin, I strongly suggest you go see him. He needs to talk to you, while you still have time." He walked past Gibbs, to secure the felon, Tony and Ziva joined him following his lead, as Gibbs stiffly walked away from them and hopefully, towards the airport.

"Are you ok McGee?" Ziva asked cautiously, her gaze, slowed by alcohol but still faster than anyone he knew, flitting between him and Gibbs' retreating form. Tony pulled out a clean handkerchief from his pocket, tying it around Tim's shoulder.

"I never would have thought I'd see the day you talked back to Gibbs. McSpringer." Tim laughed at the nickname, the easy familiarity taking some stress from his shoulders, and the others joined in, probably laughing at his slightly hysterical voice. _Jerry Springer, right._

"I haven't been truthful with you guys. I found something out, about three months ago. When we get back to NCIS, I'll tell you everything. I just really need to speak to Abby."

--

Gibbs strode away from his Agents, fuming at the tone he had been spoken to with, and yet knowing why McGee had said it. He hadn't seen Abby this month, or last month. In fact he only saw her the month before, when he had told her to get back to her lab and stay there. He stopped still and closed his eyes for a moment regretfully, not needing to catch his breath; he was fit enough to run back to the car and not break a sweat, he was thinking about what had been the cost of his self destruction. The ones he held closest to him were hurting and he'd had no idea. He shook his head and carried on walking, his fury tempering and being redirected inwards. He had thought that by staying away from them, he could protect his heart from the pain of losing them, so he had distanced himself, going as far as to shout or ignore them, oblivious of the hurt he was causing. Well it hadn't worked. Now that McGee had pointed it out he could see the suffering on Tony and Ziva's faces, he could even recall all the details of their worsening states, as their eyes became permanently half closed and red, and their bodies began to waste away, all the things that he had over looked before, his own pain the only thing he could think about. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen Ducky or heard him talk about their old adventures, _because they always involved Jenny_.

Now McGee said that Mike was in a hospital in Berlin, had he disregarded Mike's failing health like he had with everyone else's? How did McGee know about it and not him? Had Mike tried to contact him, only to be ignored? '_He needs to talk to you, while you still have time_.' Was Mike dying? Gibbs picked up the pace; running back across the field to his car, McGee had brought his own since the others couldn't pass a breathalyzer, _something else I should have seen_. He threw open his car door and jumped in, speeding back to headquarters to talk to Vance, and to see about a holiday so he could go see Mike. He owed Mike more than he could ever repay, the fact he had refused to see his bad health was unforgivable, but he was damn well going to make amends. He pulled into the car park and rushed up the stairs, the elevator being too slow for him at that moment. He should see Abby and Ducky before going, he should try to salvage their good opinion from the mess he had made of their friendships. Gibbs took a deep breath and sedately walked through the door to Cynthia's office, trying not to startle the receptionist since she had to take more crap from Vance then she ever had from Jen and she didn't need the added stress, and then slammed the Directors door open in his old style, Vance looking up from his computer screen in shock.

"Special Agent Gibbs, what the hell-"

"I'm going on a short holiday. Not sure when I'll be back." Vance blinked and then nodded, not opposing the sudden change of attitude from his senior Agent.

"Very well, take your time. I hope you sort yourself out." Gibbs nodded and walked back out, leaving the door wide open, the simple act of defiance bringing a smile to his face. he smiled at Cynthia, who had to stop herself from falling out of her chair in shock, and then he walked out on to the catwalk, and then down to the bullpen so he could sort himself out a flight to Berlin. The earliest was in an hour, so he walked straight out of NCIS, hoping Ducky and Abby would forgive him.

--

Mike Franks huffed, swigging his coffee and reading his horoscope, chuckling at the misfortune that would be directed Julian's way, if he believed this stuff. _Your_ _love life will take a turn for the worst if you keep taking long nights away from your significant other, don't let business take you away from your loved ones_. He chuckled at that, Julian didn't work at the moment; his contract with a local metal works had ended so he was relying on Lydia's income until he could get another job. Poor sap. _Your financial status will enter a crisis this month, due to a friend taking advantage of your hospitality. Don't let your innate kindness allow you to be taken for a fool_. Mike blinked as he thought about it. Was he a drain on Julian and Lydia? He had been paying rent since he had arrived but he didn't exactly pay for food and stuff… he threw the column across the room, before the silly mystic mumbo-jumbo could mess with his mind further, just as Julian and Lydia entered the room.

"Oh god, my feet are killing me!" Lydia slumped down in the chair next to Mike and rested her head on his shoulder. She had just finished her ten hour shift, and she really needed to go home, but like usual, she insisted upon staying at the hospital with Mike and her husband. Julian sat in the vacant chair next to Lydia and pulled her feet off the floor and onto his lap, so he could massage them, the ritual that had begun after the fetoscopy was as comforting as it was telling, as they stayed to watch over Jenny and the babies, just in case something happened. It had been six months since Jenny had been first brought to the hospital, and the deadline for the treatment was closing fast. Dr. Hale had said that they would wait for another few weeks so that the babies had as good a chance for survival as possible.

"How's she been?" Julian asked, whilst soothing the ache from Lydia's badly punished feet. She ground her head into Mike's shoulder as she relaxed.

"Your shoulder is still hard as a rock Mike, no pillow?" She grinned at him and he grumbled before walking to a cupboard and tossing a little cushion her way.

"There, make do with that." He groused good naturedly, their banter easy and slightly teasing. "She's been good, no problems yet. Well…" he thought back to half an hour ago when he had been shocked to hear her heart skip a beat, but since it had carried on beating after that without skipping again, he figured it was nothing. "She skipped a beat about a half hour ago, but nothing seemed to be wrong." He shrugged and sat back down, as Lydia sat up and glared at him.

"Why didn't you say anything to Carla?"

"Dr. Hale was busy with someone else." Lydia shook her head and put it back on Mike's shoulder, plus cushion, the room becoming still once again. Julian stretched and decided to get a round of coffee in, putting Lydia's feet on the ground just as the heart monitor attached to Jenny skipped again. Everyone jumped out of their seats and rushed over to Jenny's side, looking at the readouts warily, wondering what was going on. Nothing seemed to be showing on the readout, but then they couldn't say for sure what her body could be going through. It was rare enough to see a patient with her disease live this long, never mind carry children during. Lydia walked out in to the corridor and called for someone to find Dr. Hale, her brow furrowed in anxiousness.

"What's going on?" Mike stared at Lydia, hoping she would say 'nothing', but her continued silence dashed his hopes. The monitor counted another skip and they all exchanged terrified looks. Her heart was slowly stopping. Dr. Hale burst through the doors, taking in the frightened faces and she rushed over to Jenny's side. The monitor counted yet another skip and she pushed the emergency button.

"Damn! We need to take her to theatre now! If her heart stops we can't jolt her with the babies inside her. Looks like they are being born earlier than we expected."

"Will they survive?"

"Hopefully they will be developed enough." She replied, hesitant to give them false hope. It would be devastating for Jenny to carry the babies all this way so they could die in the incubators, but sometimes life sucked, and since the babies were only seven months and a few days old their chances of surviving independent of the mother were _very_ slim, but it did happen. The heart monitor skipped again and Carla began to panic a little. _Where are those nurses?_ She began disconnecting Jenny herself, her haste speaking for her as to how much they needed to get her to theatre. "Can you please help me get her to theatre? I can't manoeuvre the bed down there by myself." Julian, Mike and Lydia all nodded and took up positions around the bed, pushing it out of the doors and along the corridors, sparing glances at Jenny to make sure she was still breathing. The nurses finally appeared and they took over pushing the bed, Mike, Julian and Lydia anxiously following as far as they could go, which was outside the doors to theatre. "I'll come out as soon as we are done to tell you how it went." Dr Hale promised before disappearing through the doors with Jenny.

"Hey, do you want some coffee?" Julian put a comforting hand on Mike's shoulder. "She'll be fine, she always is." Mike nodded dumbly and then turned away from the doors, sitting beside Lydia on the chairs opposite.

"We all want coffee, honey." She said to Julian, watching him leave the waiting area to fetch the liquid of choice for all of them. She rubbed Mike's shoulder gently, conveying that everything would be ok, while knowing that she couldn't really voice it. Anything could go wrong in there, they could all die, and the babies could be stillborn if Jenny's heart stops before they could get to the babies. "She's held on as long as she can to give her babies the best chance; I don't think she will give up now."

"She never knew she was pregnant."

"A mother knows, Mike, its intuition. She's doing everything she can without realising why. It's called maternal instinct." She grinned at him, and he remembered that Lydia had children; she had called in about Dilly before the appointed time for announcing a child missing. Mike's gut had told him that she wasn't just overreacting, and they had found Dilly in the nick of time. Could Jenny be unconsciously looking out for the babies that she didn't know she had?

Julian reappeared with coffee and they all gratefully drank the rejuvenating elixir. Mike knew he had to do something though; he had been putting it off for far too long and now was the last chance Jethro would have to see any of them if they died. He couldn't keep this a secret any longer; if the babies survived it would be terribly unfair of him to cut him out of their tiny lives. He fished in his pocket for his mobile phone and pulled it out, flicking it open and punching in Jethro's number before he could change his mind. The phone rang only once before it was picked up, Jethro's gruff voice answering.

"_Gibbs_."

"Hi probie. Look, this isn't a social call; I've got something I really need to tell you."

"_Yeah, I know Mike. Turn around_." Mike froze on the spot and then slowly swivelled around, to see Gibbs standing in the doorway, putting down his phone, his lean face hard and his expression unreadable.

"Ok, so... What is it?"


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Mike stared at Gibbs in horror, his sudden appearance throwing the older man for a loop. It wasn't supposed to happen like this; he was only supposed to come when he had been told about Jenny, not before Mike had a chance to explain himself at a safe distance. He swallowed nervously and put his phone back in his pocket, he had been about to tell him anyway, he should just say it before he lost his nerve, or Jethro lost his patience. He gestured to the seats, hoping that Gibbs would sit and stay calm.

"Sit down Probie, the news I got will be a bit of a shock." Gibbs shook his head.

"I'll stand." Mike sighed and decided to jump in the deep end with both feet.

"Did McGee tell you to come here?"

"Yes, he said you were in a hospital and needed to speak to me while I '_still have time_'." Mike nodded.

"Well, at least he didn't tell you why." a soft look appeared on Gibbs' face and Mike's gut clenched with guilt.

"Are you ill?" He thought _he_ was _in_ the hospital? Guess that was why he didn't bother calling ahead.

"No, but a mutual friend is, and her life is hanging in the balance." Gibbs' brow furrowed.

"A mutual friend?" _This is it, just take a deep breath and a step towards the door_… get a hold of yourself, and just tell him what he needs to know!

"Jenny." Gibbs' expression darkened and the air around him seemed to drop a few degrees.

"That's not funny, Mike." Mike took another deep breath a launched into a narrative of what he had done.

"I switched her body at the Diner with a dead woman's and gave her to Julian and Lydia to bring here for treatment." He gestured to the two who were sitting in the seats, watching the proceedings warily. "I thought that it would be easier on you if you thought she was dead, so you didn't have to watch her die twice. The treatment was supposed to begin right away but the gunshot wounds prevented them from starting. They then found out something else, that was potentially disastrous. She was pregnant." Jethro stared at him, the words seemingly washing over him, not really soaking into his brain. Jenny was alive? Pregnant and alive? He glared at him sharply, suddenly picking up on one word over the others.

"Was? Past tense?" Mike continued talking, encouraged by Jethro's quiet acceptance of what he was saying.

"Was present tense, talking in the past, if you know what I mean. I was given three awful options, abort, have her keep the babies to full term or let her keep them to seven months and then take them out to give her the chance to get her treatment. I decided to let her keep it for seven months, which she seems to have taken very literally. Unfortunately, the option I chose made it more likely she _and_ the babies would die." Gibbs walked slowly closer to Mike, the fury radiating off of him causing Mike to take a step back. _I guess he was faking the acceptance_.

"_You_ decided? What about _her_ decision? Why did she go along with all of this?" A good question, but the answer would be a difficult one to hear.

"She didn't, she's been in a coma since the shooting. They aren't sure when she'll wake up." Gibbs closed his eyes momentarily, remembering waking up from both of his own comas; the confusion that he had felt was something he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy.

"So you decided to let her die?" the venom dripping from his voice was like a slap to the face for Mike.

"No Jethro, that wasn't-" Gibbs reached up to Mike and grasped his shirt in his fists, pulling him closer to him so they were face to face, fully intending on making him feel some of the anguish he had been feeling for the last few months. Mike stayed still, ready to take his punishment from his friend, if only in the hopes he would still be able to call him that afterwards. Lydia jumped up and moved to try and get between them, resting a hand on Gibbs' forearm to get his attention.

"Please just listen to what he has to say, he thought he was doing the right thing!" Gibbs glared at her, but she was used to difficult people and just kept her expression clear and as innocent as possible, until he reluctantly released Mike and took a step away, his conscience and chauvinism not letting him hurt someone in a woman's presence. Mike shot a grateful look to Lydia and then continued his tale, watching Jethro pace like a caged Tiger.

"A few months later we found out that she was expecting twins, and then another complication arose. Something called TTTS, Twin to Twin Transference Syndrome, its rare and life threatening to both babies, but the surgery was completed without a hitch. Then just about a half hour ago, Jenny's heart began to slow, so we are waiting out here to see if she and the girls are going to survive." Gibbs nodded as he paced, trying to process everything that he had heard. He and Jenny were having baby girls, prematurely. Shannon had been so afraid of Kelly being premature because all kinds of things could go wrong with them. They usually died due to being underdeveloped, and those were the ones that were just a few weeks early. Their babies were two whole months early, what was going to happen to them? What was he going to tell Jenny _when_ she woke up?

"So you decided to screw up my life, and Jenny's, on a long shot treatment that she hasn't even gotten yet and might not survive to have?" Mike sighed and pushed his hands in his pockets, knowing that he deserved this. "Not only that, but I have two babies that might be dying in there, too?!" he jerked his thumb towards theatre, where Jenny had been wheeled in and had yet to come back out of. Jenny and a family; everything he had ever wanted, and it was all hanging by a thread just a few feet away from him. His heart constricted, leaving him slightly breathless from the ever present agony since she had 'died'. He must have woken up in Hell today.

"I'm sorry Probie. I thought it was for the best. If she died here, you would never have had to know that she had been alive since the diner. I thought one death was more than enough for you." Gibbs struggled to keep a lid on his temper, not really wanting to be thrown out of the hospital before he could see Jenny and know that she really was alive.

"Why did she have to be dead in the first place? Why keep this from me at all?"

"She was being hunted by that Russian woman and her hired hands. If you had known she was still alive, you would have just stayed with her rather than tracking down and killing that woman." Gibbs nodded, knowing that he would have. He wouldn't have wanted Jenny out of his sight.

"All these months I've been such a bastard to my team, I've been so reckless with my life and I've been so rude to my… friends. McGee knew about this?!"

"He called me three months ago, he had figured out that Jenny was alive; he wanted me to bring her back to DC. I told him that she was dying, and that if he told you, he would just be torturing you." Of course, that must have been the reason for McGee's sudden reclusive streak, his time spent either in the gym or looking out for him, making sure he didn't go too far.

"I'm going to need some time with this before I can even think about… forgiving you."

"I understand." Jethro sat in one of the chairs, overwhelmed by everything he had learned and frozen by fear. Would she die in there before he got to see her? He couldn't lose her again, he wouldn't survive it. The time marched by slowly, each of the four people waiting turning to look at the clock on the wall every few minutes, willing the hands to move faster and for Jenny and the girls to be ok.

--

It was a full hour later, when Dr. Hale exited theatre, her hair still in a paper hat that medical staff was required to wear in surgery. She looked around, curious to see another strange face in the waiting room. She smiled brightly, the success of the risky surgery still making her elated.

"Mr Franks?" everyone stood and crowded around Carla, waiting to hear what she had to say. "The surgery went very well; we have given Jenny the first part of her new treatment and the babies have been placed in incubators. They are quite small because of how premature they are, so you won't be able to hold them yet. So far they have responded well to breathing air, they even had a good go at crying, but they may still need surgery later on if the hole in the heart doesn't close up, but we'll just have to wait and see about that."

"So, is Jenny ok?" Carla turned to the newcomer and crinkled her brow, not sure if she was allowed to speak in front of this person, who hadn't been at the hospital at all in the last six months.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" His gaze hardened, almost as if he knew what she was thinking.

"I'm the babies' father." She failed to hide her surprise at his admission, and looked to Mike to see if it was true. Mike nodded and gestured with his hand for her to continue. She turned to the new comer and decided to answer his question.

"Jenny is doing as well as can be expected for a woman in the advanced stages of a disease like hers, who has had two babies making her body give away the nutrients she needed for herself. It made her body a lot weaker than it should have been, causing her illness to get ahead and her heart muscle to struggle more. It was very lucky Mike has continued to sit with her every day, or she may have arrested in her room and the babies would have been still born." She turned to Mike. "We are going to have her brought up to her room very soon; they just need to finish stitching. The babies should already be in the incubators."

"Can they be put in Jenny's room? I don't want to separate them from her." Dr. Hale pursed her lips and thought it over. They could do that, but if something happened to them, they would be further away from the specialists, and in the case of premature babies, every second counted. "Please? Lydia is a nurse, she can help watch them." Lydia agreed and so Dr. Hale relented.

"We can try I suppose… but this week and possibly next _will_ be spent in the specialist ward. If nothing untoward happens, I'll see about arranging it." There were smiles all around and she turned around to go back into theatre.

--

McGee sat in Abby's lab, watching her down her Caf-Pow eagerly. He had told her he had something incredibly important to tell her, but he needed to tell everyone at once, so Tony and Ziva had gone to round up Ducky and Palmer and bring them back. How would they react to this news? Would they hate him? He would understand if they did, he hated himself for all of the time he had known about this and they hadn't. Abby finished her Caf-Pow and dropped it in the bin, spinning on her heel and then walking towards him, ready to resume her wheedling for information.

"No, Abs, I need everyone to be here. It's not going to be easy to say so I'd rather say it only once." He cut her off before she opened her mouth and she crossed her arms and pouted, gearing up to try something else. Luckily for McGee the others arrived at that moment.

"Well dear boy, we are all here now, so spit it out." Ducky said, with a kind smile on his face. They all stood in front of him, fanned out around the room, waiting to hear what was so important, that it had sent Gibbs scurrying away to who knows where.

"You all know that Mike Franks has been making visits to NCIS occasionally, right?" At the nodding heads of his friends he cleared his throat and stood. "Well when he came here he asked me to book him a flight under a false name, so I did, and accidentally ran a search on previous flights under that name. There were a lot, and they were not coming here. They all went back and forth between Mexico and Berlin. I didn't understand this right then, but I did notice something that made me check out _where_ he went."

"The hospital." Tony said, remembering what McGee had said to Gibbs out in the field.

"Yeah, but unlike what I led Gibbs to believe, he wasn't checking himself in, he was checking in a daughter." Shock appeared on their faces.

"He has another child?" Ducky asked, remembering the young man who had woken up on his autopsy slab and then later died in hospital.

"No he doesn't. Well, none that I know of." He took a deep breath and readied himself to hurry through what he had to say next, not wanting to have to stop during his explanation. "Anyway, the daughter he was checking in was called Jenny Franks and he checked her in at the exact time Director Shepard died." The others around him were no longer standing still; they were shaking their heads and wandering around the lab in disbelief, and in Tony's case, vibrating with anger.

"What the hell are you saying McGee?! I was there! I saw her dead body! Or have the Germans found a way to cure death?" Tony finished his sentence shouting and Ziva walked up to him, putting a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Tony is right, McGee. We saw her body, she is most definitely dead. I hope you have not sent Gibbs to Berlin believing something else." McGee looked around him and realised everyone thought he was lying. He turned to Ducky desperately.

"Ducky when I asked you for Frank's phone number, that was when I found out. I called him and he told me it was true. He switched her body with a dead woman's and took her away for treatment of her disease. He told me not to tell anyone because she was still dying, the treatment had been postponed because of something. He didn't want me torturing Gibbs unnecessarily with it because she might still die!" Abby shook her head and walked up to him, a deadly expression on her face.

"Why did you send him there if she's still dying?" McGee couldn't answer that. He had just gotten so angry; he had told him before thinking it through. Tony ran a hand through his scruffy hair and sighed.

"How about a vote? If this is a joke, we kill McGee, if it's not, we still kill McGee." He glared at Tim and pushed past Jimmy, striding out of Abby's lab. Ziva watched him leave and then turned back to McGee.

"If you can have Gibbs tell us this is real, I may be able to help him come around." Then she too disappeared through the doors.

"This must have been hard for you Timothy. I will call Mr. Franks and ask for confirmation." He patted Tim on the shoulder and walked away, Jimmy following him, leaving Abby alone with him in the lab. She put her hands on her hips and walked swiftly towards the door, then stopped and spun on her heel, approaching him, her confusion and anger giving way to excitement.

"Is she really alive, Timmy?" he nodded and she squealed, throwing her arms around his neck and squeezing the air from his lungs happily.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, but the list of characters in this story that are mine is growing! (Lydia, Julian, Nurse Adelaide, Dr. Carla Hale, Jibblet twin 1+2.)

Jethro couldn't contain himself, his giddy relief at finally seeing her face, as she was wheeled past him out of theatre and up to her room, taking over him and tempering his anxiety for her life. Even dreadfully ill and recently having had a caesarean, she was the most beautiful woman his tortured eyes had ever seen. Her red tresses were longer than the last time he had seen her, and he knew that she would be disgusted that it needed to be washed so badly and combed properly once she woke up. He kept pace with the nurses pushing her back to her room, staying no more than two feet from the edge of her bed at any time. When they finally put her in her room and hooked her up to the machines there, Jethro was almost beyond reason, his need to touch her skin, to feel that she was alive, taking over his common sense. The nurses gave up trying to ask him to move and just physically pushed him out of their way, his gaze never straying from the still figure on the bed, no retribution against their less than gentle actions forthcoming. After doing their jobs, the nurses retreated out of the room, throwing 'good luck' glances at Mike as they passed.

Gibbs walked around the bed so he could stand at her left side, and simply watched her steady breathing for a moment. This was it, the moment of truth. Would he really be able to touch her? Or was this just a cruel trick his brain was playing on him? Would he wake up in a few seconds time, screaming her name in anguish, never to actually see her again? He reached out his left hand to touch hers, his fingers gently brushing the skin, feeling the heat seeping through, before gripping her hand in his. She was truly here, real and alive, warm under his touch, the blood pulsing through her veins, rather than out on to a dusty, wooden floor. Relief coursed through him, making his legs weak and a half sob come from his lips before he could stifle it. He was a marine and a hard bitten man who had seen death, even dealt it. He had suffered great tragedies in his past, and they had defined him, giving him a harder exterior, so consequently he hardly cried anymore. The force of his reaction to her death had thrown him, well and truly, and he had taken months to even consider recovering from it, and now here he was, standing by the side of his love, holding her hand, something he was so sure he would never have the chance to do again. With his other hand he reached over and stroked her cheek, his fingers caressing the side of her face softly.

She looked so fragile in this sterile setting, the white sheets giving her skin a translucent quality that told him just how sick she really was. The coma and pregnancy had taken a harsh toll on her body, the lack of movement and leeching babies taking almost more from her than she had to give. Her muscles were wasting and she had lost weight, which in itself was a miracle since the calorie-counter only ate what her body needed when she was healthy. Mike had said her treatment had been postponed until now due to the risk to the babies, and since she had only gotten her first course of this treatment a few minutes ago, they didn't know if it would work. It was risky at the best of times since the treatment was largely experimental, but the current condition she was in and the advanced stages of her illness all joined together to give her less than great odds. He could still lose her. Jethro belatedly realised he was shaking with the force of his sobs, his vision becoming blurry now that he had blinked, upsetting the tears which had been happily streaming down his face, rather than hanging around, gathering in his eyelids. He felt a comforting hand on his shoulder, pushing him lightly into a chair that had materialised behind his legs. He fell into it heavily, listening to the sound of retreating footsteps walking out of the room before he really let go of his tightly reigned in emotions. He brought her hand to his face and sobbed into her fair skin, her unique scent filling his nose, comforting him through his tumultuous reaction.

--

Mike watched Jethro through the glass of the doors, having just left him to sort himself out. He didn't need a witness to what he was going through. He was loathed to leave him and Jenny, but he really wanted to make sure the babies were alright. He gave Gibbs a final glance and then walked away to the intensive care ward for the premature babies. They were the only two occupants of the large, very sterile, very clear room. Mike saw the incubators that held them and couldn't contain his shocked reaction to the babies' tiny size. They were barely over the length of a grown mans hand, and the information written on the clipboard in front said they only weighed one pound and five ounces. They had small tubes going inside their tiny mouths and a bandage around their middle where the umbilical cord was. Both girls were very pink and looked so fragile, that even if he had been offered the chance to hold one he would have declined.

"Incredible isn't it? That they are able to survive outside the mother when they are so little." Lydia and Julian had followed him, wary of being around Gibbs right now. Lydia hooked her arm through Mike's, her other arm around her husbands' waist.

"How do they feed them? Can they have milk from Jenny?" Mike asked, knowing that his daughter in law had told him mother's milk is the best thing for a newborn baby. Lydia shook her head regretfully.

"No I'm afraid not. The drugs in her system would be transmitted to the babies through the milk. They will be on a drip and when they get a little older, they may be given a food line into their stomachs."

"None of our children were ever this small." Whispered Julian, the awe in his voice also tinged with relief. "Is he up to looking after a child?" Mike knew who they referred to.

"Jethro once had a wife and daughter. They both died while he was fighting abroad. There is no doubt in my mind that he would make a wonderful father once again, he just needs to come to terms with it all first."

They were silent for a while, watching the little girls breathing and occasionally wriggling. They had a strong will to live, they must have, or they wouldn't be here, but that was hardly surprising. Both of their parents were strong willed and very stubborn. These little ladies would survive through sheer force of will. Mike felt his phone vibrate and he quickly turned and walked out of the ward. He wasn't sure if the phone would actually interfere with the machinery, but he wasn't willing to take the chance either.

--

Ducky wandered around autopsy, a cup of freshly brewed tea in hand, his mind whirring. It was possible that young Timothy was telling the truth, for Ducky saw no lie in his desperate face when he had realised no one believed him. That didn't however mean that what he had said was true. He could just truly believe a lie. Ducky sighed, the family had been falling apart for a long time now, this news was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Anthony had reacted very badly to hearing Jennifer was alive, as had Ziva in a way. They both had tortured themselves over their failure for so long, that to think they had missed her pulse or declared the wrong body dead was unforgivable, and something they just couldn't accept. Ducky drank the tea, leaving only the dregs where the tea leaves would have created sediment in the bottom, and placed the cup by his kettle, pulling out his phone. Only one way to find out if this was all true.

He quickly dialled Mike Franks' number and pressed call, listening to the ringing until it was picked up.

"_Yeah, Franks_."

"Ah Mike, It's Ducky. I have something very important to ask and I hope you will tell me the truth."

"_That depends on what you ask_." Ducky grinned at the word games. It felt like having a conversation with Jethro when he was his old self.

"Timothy has told us that Jennifer is alive and you are looking after her in Berlin. I must ask you if this is true, and though I am loathed to do so, if you have lied to Timothy I will contact some people I know who will make your easy going life very difficult."

"_Easy there doc, I'm already being punished by Gibbs, though not for lying. Jenny is alive and she is here, as is Jethro. The treatment she was supposed to have has finally been given to her._" Relief and excitement coursed through him. Timothy was right, she was really alive!

"Why was it postponed? Only a few things I know of could set back such a life saving treatment, and as far as I know, Jennifer had none of them."

"_I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say…_"

"Mr. Franks." Ducky said sternly. "I was, and I suppose I still am, Jennifer's medical proxy. You have to tell me."

"_I thought Gibbs was her proxy_."

"We both are. Our missions in Europe were very dangerous so we were proxy for each other, just in case. I don't think any of us changed it."

"_OK, well she was pregnant. The babies were delivered by C section a few minutes ago_." Ducky tried to speak, but his throat had temporarily closed over. Pregnant? Babies as in twins? Poor Jethro! That must have been a shock to his system. Ducky chuckled, his throat loosening as tears of joy sprang in to his eyes.

"How are they?" even to his own ears his voice sounded watery.

"_Miniscule and attached to these big incubators. Jenny and the girls seem to be ok, but the next few weeks are going to be critical._" Mike tried to be matter of fact, but Ducky could hear the tension, anxiety and joy all mixed up, like he wasn't sure how to feel. Just then Jimmy returned to autopsy, a dopey smile on his face, and his hair a little mussed. He stopped dead in his tracks when he realised Ducky was calling Mike.

"Make sure Jethro eats something Mike, he will not leave her side now he can be with her. Has he seen the babies yet? Did you say they were girls?" Jimmy's eyes widened and the dopey smile became a large, heartfelt grin, and he turned on his heel, gesturing to the floor above and nearly running into the autopsy doors when they opened too slowly. Ducky chuckled.

"_Yep, two baby girls. They weighed… uh… hang on a sec… I forgot._" Ducky heard the sound of him opening a door and whispering a question to someone, who answered in a whisper, and then the door closed again. "_Yeah they weighed one pound five ounces each. So __**really**__ tiny_."

"Well I have to go and spread the good news. Goodbye Mike and thank you." Ducky hung up and put his phone in his pocket, grinning like a Cheshire cat. He set off towards the lab, knowing Timothy would have taken refuge there from Anthony and Ziva's foul moods. He took the lift and then stepped out of it, to be tackled by Abby, who hugged him hard and then ran back into her lab squealing happily that Jenny was alive and there were Gibblets'. It seemed he didn't have to tell Timothy; Jimmy had done it for him.

"Where has Mr. Palmer gone?" he asked Abby when he got inside the lab.

"He went to tell Tony and Ziva, since neither of us dared to." She looked unsure of herself for a second, before her mood changed to excited, in a way that only Abby could.

"At least everyone will know I wasn't lying now." Timothy muttered, receiving a bright hug from Abby and then a quick whack on the head.

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself Timmy. Be happy and if it makes you feel any better, tell them 'I told you so'." She hugged him again and the look on the young man's face almost made Ducky laugh. He looked like he was holding the rarest and most beautiful of stones; it was amazing that Abby never saw it. Abby did see it though, she just wasn't ready to admit it.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Jethro watched as Jenny slept, her fair form giving no indication of when she might awaken. She had not moved or given any sign that she knew he was there in the five hours since he had first seen her and his heart broke more with every passing minute. '_You've already been in two comas; you might not come out of a third'_. Her words to him after his margarita safari revolved around his mind, making him realise how lucky he was to have taken so little time to come out of his comas, when Jenny had been in one for six months and still gave no sign of awakening. Had he taken up the quota of miracle recoveries for the two of them? He realised now that when she had come to the basement that day to talk to him, she had been afraid of losing him permanently, and right now he could empathise with that feeling. The icy fingers of fear had not left his chest since Mike's revelation, and he was afraid her brilliant green orbs would stay closed forever, never to gaze at him again, holding some secret amusement as he went about his daily rituals, including the ones that four wives had been unable to break him out of.

His eyes were raw from tears and his stomach growled, but he dared not leave the room. If he did, who was to say she would not disappear? Dimly he had been aware that Mike had come back an hour or so ago, to ask him when he was going to go see his daughters, but he just couldn't see them. Intellectually he knew he needed to meet them, to bond with them so he could help Jenny accept them when she woke up. She would not have known she was pregnant, so being told she had given birth to twin girls would be ludicrous to her. If he got to know them, she would try to love them because he asked her to. But it was too difficult for him at the moment. If they had never existed, she may be healthy now, awake and waiting to go home with him. Those babies had nearly taken her life and he couldn't just forget it. He had never thought it possible to hate children, but right now he did, and he couldn't shake the feeling of resentment that welled up in him when Mike told him how good they were doing. Maybe _he_ was the one who needed help accepting them.

"Are you going to stare at her all day Probie? Or are you going to come meet your daughters?" Gibbs winced, he hadn't realised Mike was in the room. Had he stayed since he had asked an hour ago? Did he leave and come back? He realised he didn't really care; he just wanted to be with Jenny, leaving her presence was just unthinkable.

"I'm staying here." Mike sighed and looked around him in exasperation.

"She's not going anywhere. Dr. Hale says she's responded well to the treatment from what they can see at this early stage. Your girls have more of a chance of taking a turn for the worst." '_My girls' are the reason Jenny is in such bad shape._

"I don't want to see them!" Mike just huffed angrily and walked over to Gibbs, aware that what he was about to do could get the crap beaten out of him, but Jethro needed to feel a little reality right now. He reached the lean figure, still sat in the chair he had put him in, still holding Jenny's hand, and then Mike reached over and whacked him on the head with a long forgotten magazine.

*_Whack*_

For a moment, no one moved and there was no sound, making Mike think it hadn't worked and ready the magazine for another go, but then Gibbs slowly stood up from his seat and gently placed a soft kiss to Jenny's hand, before laying it by her side. Mike backed away to the door, hoping he would be fast enough to outrun him, at least for a while. Gibbs turned sharply, his eyes blazing with all of the pent up fury this escapade had caused, and took a step towards Mike.

Mike didn't hang around, he threw open the door and legged it down the corridor, hoping to lead Gibbs to the intensive care unit before he ripped him a new one. The heavy footfalls behind him made him pick up the pace as much as he could, but truthfully, he was an old man and he didn't have much in him to give. Luckily for him though, the premature baby ward was only one floor up from Jenny's room. He took the stairs two at a time, Jethro catching up with every passing second, and then sprinted towards the ward, spotting Julian by the door and waving frantically for him to open it. Julian grinned at Mike's success, but the smile was promptly wiped off his face as Mike sped past him through the door and Gibbs rounded the corner he had just come from, looking positively murderous. Julian kept the door open, almost squeezing himself behind it as the severely annoyed man ran past him and through the door.

As Gibbs passed through the open door, his vision had taken on a red haze. Mike, who had betrayed him in the most spectacular way, wanted him to not only leave Jenny's side, which he would have done when he was good and ready, but he also figured he could just hit him on the head and everything would be fine? Just like it was before, back when he trusted him? Well it wouldn't and Jethro was sick and tired of Mike's 'holier than thou' attitude. Gibbs slowed to an immediate halt as he took in the room around him, and more specifically, the incubators that held tiny pink bodies, their little chests pulsing with their heartbeats.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs, meet your two baby girls." And with that Mike fell into a chair gasping, well and truly done in.

Gibbs approached the incubators carefully, watching the little girls inside as they twitched occasionally, his eyes widening as he took in the sight of his baby girls. He couldn't speak and all thoughts of teaching Mike a lesson he would never forget left his mind. He moved closer, reaching out to touch the glass that separated them from him, keeping them warm and safe from illness. His and Jenny's daughters, the children he never dreamed he would get the chance to have with her. He realised that he couldn't muster up the resentment he had been feeling five minutes ago, the negativity just wouldn't come in the face of their innocence. It wasn't their fault that Jenny had nearly died giving them life, they couldn't choose the moment of their conception or the way they entered the world.

--

Tony watched the Navy yard resentfully, the people out there moving about their daily lives with no guilt eating away at them. They didn't have to live with the memory of all the excuses he had given to Ziva, to stay away from Jenny and whatever secret mission she was on. They didn't have to deal with the regrets, that if he had not been so worried about getting dragged into another personal war he could have been there to save her life, if only he had listened to Ziva, if only he hadn't been such a coward, if only… but it was too late, they had arrived too late and the sight of all those bullet holes, all the blood on the floor, the body of the Director lying there looking so small, pale and vulnerable, would be forever etched on his brain. He had felt for her pulse, taking her cold lifeless hand in his, finding no heart beat. That image haunted him everyday, there was no way he had felt for the pulse of the wrong body. Hell, Ziva had been there too and she had known Jenny for a lot longer than him. There was no way! No way! Right?

"Tony. Come back down to the lab." Ziva spoke softly behind him hoping to bring him out of his funk, but Tony couldn't face McGee. He couldn't stand to hear the lies.

"Why? So McGee can accuse us of negligence as well as getting Jenny killed?!" Ziva sighed and moved to stand next to him, leaning against the large window and gazing up at his tortured face.

"I do not think McGee would lie to us, Tony. Not about this." Tony pulled a face of disbelief and consternation.

"Then why did you follow me? It crossed your mind too."

"Of course it did, but if McGee was going to say something like that, the time to have done it would have been back then, six months ago when it happened. Do you remember what he said then?" she rested a hand on his bicep, the calming effect making him sigh softly.

"Yeah, he said 'it's not your fault'." She squeezed his arm and turned him to face her properly.

"He meant it then and I strongly believe he means this now." Tony nodded and then they both turned around just as Jimmy came up behind then, nervously glancing between them.

"Yeah Palmer, what is it?"

"Uh… Dr. Mallard was just on the phone with Mike Franks. Jenny is alive and in Berlin, she just had two girls and Gibbs is with her. I just came up to tell you…" he bolted back downstairs, leaving Tony and Ziva staring after him in silence.

"Well… I guess I owe McGee an apology." Tony muttered, the reality not really sinking in but the confirmation was difficult to dismiss. Ziva squeezed his arm again and then hooked her arm through his.

"Yes, we both do."


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A shock ran through Jethro's entire body as he walked through the door to Jenny's room, having just returned from the intensive care unit, to see the Doctor from theatre, Dr. Hale, and a small army of nurses standing by Jenny's bed. Whatever had gone on was obviously over now, as the nurses all filed past him, out of the door. Dr. Hale added a syringe of some clear liquid to the already clear saline bag, and then wrote something on a clip board. She turned around and saw the frozen figure in the doorway and smiled at him to try and put him at ease.

"Ah Mr Gibbs, we were just checking her over to see if the treatment is working. The large number of nurses present was simply a precaution, in case she took a turn for the worst during testing." She said, noticing his panicked look and how he glared at the syringe as if it was evil. She put it in a hospital waste bin along with her gloves and turned to face him properly.

"How is she?" he asked, once the initial fear that she had died while he was away receeded.

"Well we can already see a marked improvement, although we can't say to any degree of certainty if it will continue to improve, or if the drug has just not been noticed by the illness. Time will tell, but I think it is more than alright for me to offer cautious optimism." She smiled widely and checked her pager.

"When will she wake up?"

"When she is ready. Perhaps the treatment will give her the strength to reach consciousness, but I cannot say for certain, I'm sorry." She walked past him and out of the room, leaving him alone with Jenny.

Gibbs walked the short distance from the door to her side and sat in the chair by her bed. He reached for Jenny's hand, lifting it to his face as he brushed her hair from hers, stroking her cheek gently. Her skin was so soft and warm; he still couldn't believe she was alive, that she was here with him. The treatment must be doing quite a lot of good, since her skin colour was looking a little healthier.

"We have two beautiful baby girl's Jen." He spoke softly to her, in the hope she would know he was near her, in the hope she would wake up. "They are so small… they haven't even opened their eyes yet… I don't know how you managed to keep them alive through everything that has happened to you… but I'm so very glad you did… please wake up Jenny." he stood up and leaned in to place a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. He placed another kiss to her forehead, lingering there to inhale her scent and feel her close to him. He sat on the edge of the bed and turned his body to hers, wrapping his arms around her gently, being careful to not to trap or pull any tubes. He settled down and began to describe their daughters to Jenny in greater detail, occasionally placing a soft kiss in Jenny's hair. She snuggled closer.

He moved a little to get her in a more comfortable position before the movement really penetrated his brain, and he pulled back a little to see her face. She looked the same, then a look of discomfort passed over her face and she snuggled even further in to his embrace. Gibbs froze and felt the excitement bubble up in his stomach, she was responding to him! Surely that meant she was waking up.

"Jenny? Jen can you hear me? Jen?" She didn't answer him or wake up, but she did take a deep breath, her nose in his chest, his scent surrounding her, and then let it out in a sigh. Gibbs didn't dare to move and so he settled back with her, stroking her arms and her face soothingly, hoping she would open her eyes soon. A part of his mind told him that he really needed to tell her everything that had happened to her when she woke up, but now she was responding, should he tell her about the babies right away? What if she freaked out? What if she refused to see them? What if she had wanted to die in that Diner? He shook his head to try and stop the flood of doubts, nestling her closer in his embrace.

--

McGee walked through the door to Abby's lab, returning from his emergency Caf-Pow errand with a large cup of it in one hand, and walked swiftly up behind her. He reached around her, holding the cup in front of her face and she snatched it up quickly with a squeal of delight.

"Thanks Timmy!" she took a long drink of it, placed it on the desk and then turned around, throwing her arms around him in a quick bone crushing hug. McGee's bones didn't get crushed though; she already made them turn to jelly when he walked in to her lab. His heart was beating a mile a minute and his insides quivered, all from one little hug. All too soon it was over and Abby turned back to her computer, retrieving her Caf-Pow from the desk and drinking some more. McGee wistfully gazed at Abby, wishing he could work up the courage to say something to her, rather than just stand back and watch her pick yet another terrible boyfriend. Surely her run of bad luck was an indication that he should do something about it, take her to dinner maybe?

"You are devouring her with your eyes." A voice said next to his ear, and McGee spun around, coming face to face with Ziva and Tony, the former being the one who had spoken, the latter just walking through the door. "You owe me." She whispered, having just saved him from being spotted drooling at Abby by Tony, who would never let him live it down. Should he care what Tony thought, though? He had thought he was a liar, probably still did, and that he would tell them such awful untruths about Jenny being alive. Why should he care if his personal life was being picked apart by someone who didn't listen to his own friends? Tony awkwardly approached his eyes seemingly unable to meet McGee's.

"Hey McGee. I er… I just wanted to say… that… I'm sorry I didn't believe you… and that I was so…"

"Rude?" suggested Abby, her arms crossed over her chest, her eyes narrowed. "Snide?"

"Yeah… both I guess. I shouldn't have doubted you… it's just… I was _there_, you know? How could I miss something like her _being alive_?!?" McGee winced and then reached out a hand to Tony's shoulder, to stop him from carrying on. It was obvious what was going on inside Tony's head, and he couldn't help him. Only Jenny could do that.

"Tony, don't mention it. It's forgotten." He gave him a smile and was relieved was he got one back.

"So when can we go over and see them?" Abby jumped up and down, excitement at the prospect of seeing mommy, daddy and Gibblets sending her happiness into overdrive.

"Why don't we wait for Gibbs to bring her home? They'll need plenty of time to adjust to having two babies, and since Jenny no longer has a home," everyone grimaced, "she'll need to get used to living in Gibbs' house." Tony said displaying the caring and quite mature side of his that usually was kept chained to a wall in a dark corner, barking at people that got too close, emotionally if not physically.

"Well we can help with that, right? Decorate his house and make it baby friendly so they don't have as much adjusting to go through?"

"Uh, we should probably ask him first Abs."

"Of course, but even if he says no, I'm doing it for Jenny. Can you imagine living in Gibbs' house whilst trying to keep babies happy and decorate the house so they can have a habitable room?" everyone tried to keep such an image in their minds, but they just couldn't, so they shook their heads, aware that by doing so, they had just volunteered to Abby's crazy plan.

"Good point, call Gibbs and tell him we'll be decorating his house." McGee saw Vance from the doorway and hastily added "At the weekend. In our own time?" Vance nodded and walked back in to the elevator, apparently having eavesdropped on enough of the conversation. "Git."

"Who?" Tony asked, looking around as the elevator doors closed.

"Vance." Ziva said, making McGee look at her strangely. How had she known? "I heard his footfalls. They are quite distinctive."

"Anyway, I scouted out the house before, back when I was being stalked by that weird killer guy and my ex, and I have a rough idea of what to do already. I'll stop by in a few minutes and then write a list of all the stuff we'll need, which you guys can get for me."

"When are you calling Gibbs?"

"Not now, call it my Gibbs sense, but I really think now is a bad time to call him."

--

Mike watched in fascination as one of the babies lifted a tiny hand and brought it to her nose, clumsily rubbing it as if she had an itch. Could babies that small get itches? His heart melted as the little girl let out something like a whimper and then began to fuss. It was so adorable, he wanted one. Of course this wish was followed by the sadness as he remembered he had had one, but his son was long gone now. at his age, even if he did find a woman young enough who would be with him, he would probably need help moving around before they were classed as an adult. Best to just watch the little ones here, he knew Jethro wouldn't cut him out of their lives; he knew he was lonely, why else would he let him stay with him in Mexico for four months? Why else would he have brought his sons wife and child home? He had stayed out of everyone's lives for so long, he had believed he had gotten used to it, but then that fateful day he had gotten a call from Jenny, telling him Jethro needed him and he had been forced to see he was lying to himself.

He couldn't imagine not being able to come see Jethro when it got too much, and now he had more reason to. The girls were alive because of him, he knew that and so did Jethro, he just didn't want to admit it. He hadn't meant to be there that day, so if he hadn't have been, Jenny would have died in that Diner, and these little girls would never have been born. He wasn't going to use that as leverage though, he was far too honourable for that. He sighed as the other little girl began to fuss and he wondered what had gotten them upset. He shook his head and walked away, hoping to bring Gibbs back with him, so his presence could calm them.

Mike walked through the door to Jenny's room and the sight before him was one he had never thought he would see again. Jethro and Jenny were cuddled up on the bed, their heads together and happiness exuding from them. He wasn't sure why, until he noticed Jethro was kissing her. On the mouth. He felt a little awkward then. Was Gibbs allowed to kiss her like that when she was in a coma? He stepped forwards and Jethro snapped his head around to look at him, making Mike stop, frozen in place, as two pairs of eyes held him in their gaze. Jenny was awake.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A.N.: I have put a poll on my profile and I would like to ask you to please go vote. I need names for the twins and I have far too many options to decide, so I thought I would be evil and put the decision on all of you! I'll use the top two that you pick and you can choose two names in the poll, one for each Jibblet. It is completely confidential; even I won't know who votes unless you tell me. Thank you in advance!

Thank you everyone who has read this story and put it on your favourites and alert! Special thanks to Mrs. Elizabeth Gibbs, fredesrojo, horseninja, HesMines, Gemstone121, TomorrowNeverCame and babyred1995 for reviewing! Thank you so much!

Jenny opened her eyes, the calming scent of Jethro all around her, almost lulling her back to sleep. She could smell something else though, something partially disguised by Jethro's scent. It smelt like chemicals, antiseptic and sterility. Her eyes flew open as she realised she was in a hospital bed, Jethro by her side. _Oh god, I failed. Svetlana must still be alive. Now Jethro is with me and he's a sitting duck!_ She recalled being shot and the last thing she could remember was Mike's concerned face and his voice telling her that if she gave up he would kill her. It had seemed incredibly amusing at the time, as she had felt her life leaking away and no amount of threats could keep her conscious and alive. She had tried though, she just couldn't leave Jethro. Not when she had only just got him back. She had tried to slow her breathing so her heart wouldn't pump the blood out of her as quickly, but she hadn't been able to hold on. She had thought she was going to die, had been so certain of it. She had accepted that her illness would kill her, but she had been anticipating spending her last year or so with Jethro, spending her days with him and showing him how deeply she loved him. She couldn't believe she was going to die in the diner, it had been much too soon. Apparently she had survived though, and Jethro was with her, probably here to watch her illness kill her off much more slowly than any bullet would.

She looked around her at the white walls and ceiling, the blinds open and the stars twinkling brightly through the window at her. Gibbs was laid on the bed with her, his arms around her, holding her close. She sighed and snuggled further into his embrace. She could stay like this forever, the peace that descended upon her was all consuming and she didn't want to move at all. Then she heard his voice, slightly worried and yet relieved.

"Jenny? Are you awake?"

"Mmm hmm." She hummed back to him, not able to force her vocal cords to work right away. _How long have I been unconscious?_ "Yeah…" Jethro's heart began to beat a little faster and she couldn't help giggling a little.

"Are you ok? Are you in any pain?"

"N… no." she said and then she tried to clear her throat, wondering what was wrong with her voice.

"Jenny, look at me, please." She did so and smiled at him, trying to reach up and touch his face, but her arms felt heavy and she could barely move them. She frowned and tried again, this time managing to lift an arm and move it to his shoulder. She gasped with the exertion and turned her suddenly very worried gaze to his.

"What's wrong with me? I thought I would have longer with you…" she trailed off as tears began to run down her face. The disease had caught up with her, she was dying already. She wouldn't ever get to have the long weekends alone with him, or give him something to remember her by. She would never carry a child to term now. She was going to die and Jethro would be alone again, with only his boat for company. Jethro kissed her forehead and then pulled back to look at her.

"Jenny, listen to me. We are in a hospital in Berlin where you are being given an experimental treatment to combat the disease. They say it might be working. They might be curing you, ok? So don't worry about dying. You aren't going anywhere now. Your muscles are weak because you have been in a coma since the shooting at the diner. Svetlana was taken care of so there is nothing to worry about there either. Alright? You aren't leaving me and I'm not leaving you, ok?" she smiled again, not at all put at ease. _Might_ be curing her wasn't you _are_ being cured.

"No one's leaving, got it." she tried to joke weakly, the tiny display of humour still enough to bring a grin to Gibbs' face despite that. "How long was I in a coma?" Jethro's face fell slightly and Jenny's stomach plummeted. She just knew it was a long time, it had to be. Her muscles wouldn't have wasted away if she had only been in it a couple of weeks. That meant it must have been a month at least.

"Six months." Jenny's mouth opened in shock and she just stared at him, her tears coming again.

"So if this treatment doesn't work, we won't have much time together before I die because I've spent all of this time in a coma?"

"Jen, please don't cry. It will be alright. You _won't_ die, this treatment _is_ working." She didn't seem to hear him though and she just shook her head, whilst trying to get words out between sobs.

"I had hoped to give you something to live with, but now I can't even do that." She saw him smile through her tears and she felt worse. He must know what she was talking about and was just trying to make her feel better, so she could die with a clear conscience.

"Jen you already did. Mike says that when he brought you here you were found to be one month pregnant." Why would that make him smile? He had said she had been in a coma for six months; one month more was only seven. That was not nine months!

"But that means my baby would only be seven months along." She looked down at her stomach, a slight bulge all that could be seen and she began to panic in earnest. "I lost it didn't I?"

"No, they were delivered by c-section yesterday." Jenny looked at him owlishly, not seeming to take it in.

"They?"

"We have two beautiful baby girls, Jenny. They are in the intensive care unit for premature babies right now but-" his words stopped mid flow when Jenny's lips crashed on to his, her arm finding new strength as she pulled his head closer, her love and excitement coursing through her. They had baby girls! Twin girls! He kissed her back, his own arms snaking around her and pulling her tight to him. She was blissfully unaware of Mike's entrance in the room, Jethro wasn't however, and he pulled back to turn his sharp gaze to him when he heard him move closer. Jenny watched him too, unsure about what Jethro's reaction to him meant. He was probably just over protective.

"You're awake. I just came down to say the girls are restless, but this turn of events I did not expect. Welcome back to the land of the living. By the way, any and all loss of property on your part is entirely Jethro's fault." He grinned at her and then beat a hasty retreat, leaving Gibbs spluttering his protests while trying not to look at Jenny's enquiring face. _Crap_.

--

Abby opened the door and closed it carefully behind her, casting a critical eye over it once she was used to the dark. She didn't know where the light switch was yet, but she would find it eventually. The door looked ok, so she walked away from it and down the hall, looking at the walls for the switch. She found it and flicked it on, pulling a pad of paper and a pencil from her bag and noting down the hard wood floor. It was rough from unprotected use and a baby or toddler could potentially get splinters from crawling over it. She smiled to herself as she noted down that it needed either replacing or a carpet buying and then she moved to the kitchen. Oh my… she stared at the completely Spartan room, the only thing that looked like it got any use being a coffee machine and a drawer in one of the kitchen units. She walked over to it and pulled it open; laughing when she saw it was filled with take-away menus. She closed it and wrote down that they would need child proof catches on the fridge and the oven. If it hadn't rusted shut. She shook her head at the state of the kitchen and decided to forgo the rest of the house, just concentrate on the bedrooms for now. They could do the rest if they had time before they came back from Berlin.

Abby climbed the stairs, noting that it too needs carpet and possibly the banister mending as a section of it wiggled ominously when she gripped it. She walked into the first room she came to and realised it was the bathroom. She walked back out reluctantly, sticking to her guns about doing the bedrooms first. The next room was a quite large one, though not large enough to be the master bedroom. Abby flicked on the light and put her coat and bag on the floor. She quickly sketched an outline of the room and then cast her eye around it. This would be the room for the babies, so she would have to find every baby hazard and then she could sketch the plan of what she wanted to do to it. She walked around, uncovering every plug socket so she could count how many plug covers she would need. There were two wall sockets, both doubles, so four plug covers were needed in the girls' room. She noted it down and their locations and then she walked to the window. It was a key lock so that would be a simple case of keeping the key away from them. She nodded and then noted where the radiators were. _Ok, now for a little Abby magic_. She grinned and hunched over the pad, scribbling furiously.

Four hours later, Abby heard the front door open and close and Tim shouted out to her. She smiled and called them from the kitchen, which was where she had worked her way to as she had circuited the house. They trudged through the doorway and looked around at the room, obviously unsure if she had started already or not. She rolled her eyes at them and turned her pad around so they could see it.

"I'm good, but I'm not that good. Anyway I have drawn plans for each room and I've noted what we will need and a rough outline of the prices. It's going to be expensive." She bit her lip nervously. "Very expensive."

"How expensive?" McGee asked nervously, almost feeling the money leech out of his bank account at her pouty look.

"Ten thousand dollars expensive." Tim nearly fainted at the expense and the fact he had at least some of the money and would probably be made to foot the bill.

"What are the cribs made of? Gold?" Abby shook her head and pointed at the plans.

"We need to get more than just cribs McGee. Have you any idea how much stuff babies need? There are two as well so it's practically doubled! Besides, I just noted down the stuff I would _like_ to do to this house, the _entire_ house. We can leave all that if we need to."

"Actually I've been thinking about that." Tony said, walking over to study the plans and the huge amount of money they would need. "I think if we announced the news to everyone at NCIS and invited them to join us, if they want to, so no pressure on them, I could maybe convince them to part with the money they put in the pool for the entirety of the Jenny/Gibbs bets. I added it all up before coming over and if they all say yes, including you guys and me, we could have at least six thousand dollars." Silence met his announcement for a moment as they all absorbed that information. Who knew there was that much money riding on Jenny and Gibbs doing random things?

"Six thousand?" breathed Ziva, awe in her voice at the thought of that much money in Tony's little book and trying to think of who would be mad enough to bet so much.

"There are almost three hundred agents in NCIS, Ziva, and they all like to win money on my pools. Besides, it's not really that much. It's just the equivalent of each person putting 20 dollars in the pool." Ziva nodded as she worked it out quickly in her head. He was right, it was. Well that was ok; it didn't seem like that much of an expense if you just thought of it in 20 dollar increments.

"Alright. When were you thinking about doing that?" asked McGee aloud, his enthusiasm at the help they would receive coming over in his voice. With three hundred people working on the house they could have the entire thing renovated in about a week.

"When you had decided on what we were definitely doing. I didn't want to ask everyone to come here only for them to mill around with nothing to do because you still hadn't decided." Tony said, shrugging. Abby nodded enthusiastically, already caught up in the frenzy of decorating.

"Good idea. Well we _definitely_ have to completely renovate the babies' room and the master bedroom. We have to buy Jenny some clothes since _all_ of her belongings burned in the fire and we need to get child proof locks on everything that opens and has the potential to be dangerous."

"What about the basement?" McGee asked hesitantly, pointing in its vague direction.

"Under no circumstances are we to touch the basement. We can put a lock on the door and just leave it at that. Gibbs will understand us remodelling his house, but I don't think he could forgive any kind of interference in the basement." Everyone nodded agreeing. They had best put a lock on the door first, before doing anything else, just so no good Samaritan from work decided to do them a favour by cleaning up in there or, god forbid, throwing something out. They all shuddered, thinking along the same lines as they pictured Gibbs' reaction.

"Ok, well I will go shopping tomorrow to find the right paints. We can just move all of the furniture into the living room until that gets done. With people from work helping it should be done in no time so we could probably paint both bedrooms simultaneously. That way we'll get the paint smell out of the way faster. Oh, we need to vote on something. Do you think we should carpet the entrance hall or replace the wood floor?" No one was expecting to have such a choice thrown at them, so only McGee answered.

"How about both? We put wood just in front of the door for about four feet in and then carpet the rest of the way up. That way there will be plenty of room for guests to leave their muddy shoes on the wood instead of tracking it through the house." Tony gave him an odd look, wondering when he became interested in interior design.

"Gibbs wouldn't care about that." Ziva rolled her eyes at Tony and decided to remind him that soon it wouldn't be just Gibbs living in the house.

"No but Jenny might, and with two kids around the less dirt, the better, yes?" They looked thoughtful for a moment, having never really been to Jenny's old house before it was burned down. They didn't know anything about her preferences of carpet to wood, wallpaper to paint or favourite colours. They were well and truly stumped when it came to her. They began to feel a little nervous, what if she hated it?

"I think we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let us just focus on the bedrooms." Ziva announced in an attempt to divert everyone's attention from failure.

"Ok, Tony I need you and McGee to measure every wall in each room. Of course I want you to leave at least a foot around the plug sockets, so if you could measure like either side of a plug socket is a different wall that would be great. Ziva, I need to run my paint schemes by you." Abby jumped up excitedly.

"I think I'll just go back to work and ask about the pool money. I might as well get it out of the way as soon as possible." Tony waved to them and then disappeared out of the door, back to NCIS.

"Ok, well Ziva could you help McGee? I'll come up too and tell you about the schemes."


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

A.N.: Thank you everyone who voted on the names for the baby girls! The top two names chosen by you were; Faith and Alexis! Thank you everyone! I think I'll just do an epilogue next and we can say goodbye to Mike's Moral Quandary, since the quandary is now over. Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing this story!

Jenny watched Jethro's face carefully as he mentally and physically pulled away from her. He sighed and closed his eyes, opening them again to gaze, pained, at her curious face. She didn't want to push him, but Mike's words were very suggestive to her imagination. '_Any and all loss of property on your part is entirely Jethro's fault.' _What did he mean? What property could she have lost? She didn't think she had taken anything of any real value with her to the desert. Had she lost her phone? Is that what he meant?

"Jenny, please understand; I thought you were dead. I thought I had lost you and would never see you again." She nodded encouragingly and he took a deep, steadying breath and continued. "Svetlana followed me to your house and Mike killed her in your study." He averted his eyes from hers for a moment and her heart constricted as a terrible sense of foreboding overtook her. Surely he wasn't alluding to what she thought he was? He wouldn't ever do anything that extreme, right?

"Jethro… you didn't…"

"We burned the house down with her body still in it, so we could pass it off as you and keep your detour to the LA desert a secret." Her eyes widened and she pushed him off of the bed, her breathing becoming harsh and angry. No, no he couldn't, he wouldn't do that to her. This was a nightmare, she would wake up soon. Tears pricked behind her eyes and she closed them.

"Everything I owned was in there, Jethro. All of my memories, everything that I had to remind me of my mother, the things I had left of my fathers, all of it is gone?" the tears rolled down her face, and she sobbed harder. "You destroyed it all to sell a story?!" she fumed, the tears coming thick and fast and her small frame shaking with the force of it all. "Is that how much you care for me? You find it so easy to obliterate my memory and anything that could remind you or anyone else of me?" he reached out to her but she shrank away from him. "You have taken everything from me, Jethro!" she shook her head, putting her hands up as much as she could to ward him off and then she rolled to face the other way. "Leave! Just get away from me!"

Jethro clenched his jaw as a sense of guilty hopelessness overcame him and turned to leave. He walked swiftly to the door, but paused in the doorway and looked back at her. She had pulled up the blanket covering her and was crying into her pillow, trying to block out the world while she mourned the loss of possessions with more value in sentimentality then all the money in the world, things she would never see again. He sighed softly, her house had never entered his mind when he had found out she was alive, he had forgotten he'd set fire to it.

"I'm sorry Jenny." he said, but she either didn't hear him over her sobbing, or didn't want to hear him, so he turned and left her to grieve.

Jethro wasn't aware he had set off to get there, but he found himself stepping through the doors to the premature babies' ward his daughters were on. Mike was there already, and he turned to look at Gibbs as he entered. The expression on his old probie's face was an odd mixture of desolation and guilt, and it said more about what was wrong than an hour long conversation would have told him. Gibbs walked over to the incubators and watched his daughters while they breathed, their tiny bodies moving rapidly while they slept. Mike stayed silent, aware now that telling Jenny about her house was maybe not the best idea.

"Why did you do that Mike?" he didn't sound angry, but then he hated himself too much to blame someone else right now. Mike glanced at him and then turned to watch one of the girls twitch her fingers in her sleep.

"I thought getting all of the bad surprises out at once would be the best thing for her, and I'm right, Probie. From now on, everything will be getting better from her perspective." Gibbs nodded absently, it made sense, it was just a kind of tough love that he wouldn't have been able to follow through on, but Mike was a very practical man. Gibbs swallowed hard and then put his hands on the side on both incubators, hoping his daughters could feel his presence. They still hadn't opened their eyes, but that wasn't unusual for babies so premature. His heart swelled with love for them and Jenny and he could feel the pressure of tears building behind his eyes. He wasn't going to allow them to fall though, he had hurt her, he shouldn't be crying, he should be trying to make it right. How could he do that though? He had _destroyed_ her house.

"I never thought I would see her again, Mike. How can I really explain to her that I thought it was for the best, when she's not really dead?"

"Jethro..."

"Even if I had the words I doubt she would listen to me. She told me to leave, that I had taken everything from her…"

"Jethro. She's just had a nasty shock; she needs reminding of all the good things that she still has." Mike put his hand on Gibbs' shoulder to turn him to face him; he was hoping to make him listen to what he was trying to tell him. "She has you, she has two beautiful baby girls and she has an extended family waiting for her at home." He gripped Jethro's shoulder harder and shook him slightly as he put more emphasis in his words. "She has the opportunity to build a new life with you and hopefully, knowing that will spur her on to beating this illness." Jethro looked him in the eye and nodded gratefully. Mike grunted in acknowledgement. Gibbs would be ok, now he just had to help Jenny through her loss, which he was more than happy to take the blame for if it would help her.

He let go of Jethro and walked down the corridors to Jenny's room one floor beneath him, stopping outside it when he heard her crying through the door. This was going to be hard, she was obviously distraught and he wasn't sure how to handle a crying woman. _Just suck it up and get on with it old man, it'll be better for her when this is all over_. He jerked his head in agreement with his inner voice and opened the door, stepping through the doorway and in to the room. She didn't react to his presence, though she was crying so much he doubted she could hear much more than herself. He steeled himself and stepped around the bed, walking towards her and coming to rest by the side of the bed she was facing. She had her eyes tightly closed, almost as if she was blocking out the world. Well everyone was entitled to their grief, but he needed to help her see the good in her situation before she began believing Jethro really had taken everything from her. In her condition, she may give up the fight, and that was something he just couldn't allow. He placed a hand gently on one of hers and her eyes flew open, glaring at him even though they were red and puffy. Her despair was overwhelming, but that was what he was here for.

"Jenny… it might all seem hopeless right now but it isn't." She pulled her hand away and gave him an extremely hostile look. _Try harder, Franks_. "People lose all of their possessions in house fires quite often. Yes it's a terrible loss, but the important thing is you weren't in the house when it was ablaze. You are alive and you can make new memories." He reached out again as another wave of tears flowed over her cheeks. "I'm not saying don't grieve, because what you lost really _is_ irreplaceable, you would be doing those memories a disservice if you didn't care." He moved his hand so he could grip hers and was pleasantly surprised when she didn't pull away. Encouraged by this, he continued. "I'm saying you have so much to live for. Jethro thought you were gone forever, he thought you had died in that diner, so he did what he thought was right. I was there too, and I knew that you were still alive, so if you are going to blame someone, blame me." Jenny furrowed her brow but she didn't push him away, she really seemed to be listening to him. He was suddenly uncomfortably aware that if he didn't pull this off, he wouldn't get another chance. He considered his next sentences carefully before saying them. "You have so much to live for Jenny, you have Jethro; a man who loves you." She smiled at him weakly; her tears were stopping. "You have twin girl's just one floor above you who need their mother." She looked away from him for a moment and down at her stomach. They weren't real to her yet, he realised. _She hasn't seen them so she can't relate to them._ He squeezed her hand so she looked back at him. "You have everyone at NCIS who consider you their family, their surrogate mother even; Abby, to name one." She gave him a large genuine smile at the mention of Abby, that girl was a ray of sunshine even when she wasn't present. "You are on a course of treatment that is going to save your life and inspire many others who are in your position that have previously given up hope of a cure, to try this treatment and grasp another chance at life. So, what do you say?" Jenny snuffled softly and then wiped her eyes. She smiled at Mike again and thought carefully about what she wanted now. The decision was easier than she thought it would be.

"I want to see my babies."

It took only moments for Mike to find nurse Adelaide and have her bring a wheelchair to Jenny's room, and only a few moments more to get her settled in it. She didn't complain about the pain she was in either, knowing that if she did the nurse may not let her go up to the floor above and see her daughters. She wasn't willing to risk it and she wanted a clear head when she did see them, rather than being drugged up on morphine. Mike thanked nurse Adelaide and pushed Jenny to the elevator. They travelled in silence all of the way up to the premature babies wards. When they were a few paces from the door her daughters were behind, Jenny finally broke the silence.

"Mike, what are they like? Can I hold them?"

"They are gorgeous and I'm not sure. I think they are too small to be held." She nodded and sat back, trying to slow her heart rate. Mike pushed the door open and then wheeled her in, bringing her to the incubators with her daughters in. Jenny looked around at the large white room and she caught sight of Jethro standing in front of two clear boxes. He moved to one side when he heard their approach and that was when Jenny got her first glimpse of her daughters. Their tiny pink bodies were lying on their backs and their heads were facing her, so she could see their faces. They were so small, she was almost afraid this was some kind of sick joke and they were really just dolls, but a miniscule hand came up and rubbed an equally tiny nose and Jenny's heart skipped. They were real. She was a mother. She had two baby girls. She reached out her hands to the incubators and slipped her fingers through the holes that fed the tubes through, so she could touch her daughters. Their small fingers grasped one of hers and they both held on to her, gently but surprisingly firmly. Jethro stepped up by her side and put his arm around her shoulders hesitantly, unsure of how welcome his attention was. Jenny blinked rapidly as her eyes filled up with tears again and she sighed in frustration. All she seemed to be doing today was crying. She looked up at Jethro and smiled at him through her tears.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier, Jethro. I know you would never take anything like that from me maliciously. I was upset; I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"It's fine Jen." He leaned down to her and kissed her softly, hugging her tight and then adding his fingers to hers with their daughters. "What do you want to name them?" Jenny looked up at him surprised.

"I hadn't even thought about that." He smiled reassuringly at her and withdrew his hands from the incubators so he could brush some of her hair behind her ear.

"Well you have had a lot on your mind since waking up about an hour ago." Jenny nodded and yawned loudly. It may have only been an hour, but she was exhausted. All of the crying had taken most of her energy.

"Well since you have had more time to think about it, suggest a name."

"How about Alexis?" She raised her eyebrows at his fast response and he chuckled. "As you said, I've had a little longer to think about it. Alexis is a beautiful name and one I have always really liked. I considered it for Kelly, but somehow it didn't seem right for her." his eyes took on a faraway look and Jenny rubbed her head up against his chest and turned to place a kiss on him tenderly.

"I love Alexis, and I think I have the perfect name for her sister." He looked back at her and tilted his head enquiringly. She smiled and mimicked his action. "Faith." Jethro leaned down and kissed her again, and then he withdrew slightly and brushed his nose against hers. She laughed at him and playfully tried to bite it so he tapped hers lightly and pecked her lips. Jethro took a deep breath and prepared himself for what he was going to say next. The months without her had put everything into perspective for him, and he truly couldn't imagine a day without her now. He wanted her to be with him all of the time, and since she no longer had a house because of him, he was going to ask her to live with him and never leave in the most permanent way that was currently known to man.

"Faith and Alexis Gibbs?" Jenny raised her eyebrows in disbelief and stared at him incredulously.

"Leroy Jethro Gibbs, was that a marriage proposal?" he stared in to her eyes and then ruined the confident façade by smirking and shrugging.

"Depends on your answer." She laughed with him and then kissed him deeply, pulling him to her and not allowing him to escape, a forewarning of how their marriage would be. He simply smiled against her lips and lost himself in the kiss, as he knew she was doing, and then eased out of it, allowing her to breathe. She kept her head close to his and then put their foreheads together gently.

"Alexis and Faith Gibbs, sounds good." It was Jethro's turn to blink back tears then, his hard exterior showing a few welcome cracks. He nodded against her head.

"Good."

"Great." Mike said, not wanting to be left out of the conversation, but not really wanting to interrupt either. He grinned at them and they smiled happily back. Jenny raised her eyebrows and flickered her eyes in Mike's direction, which Jethro understood without words. This kind of easy communication with her was something he treasured. He agreed with her silent question and then turned to his oldest friend. In a way, he had been fulfilling the role already, so they knew he was perfect for it, and that they owed him more than they could ever really repay.

"Mike, we want you to be Godfather to the girls. Will you accept?" Mike was speechless, which was rare, and then he gave them such a beaming smile that they couldn't help but grin back.

"I'd be honoured, Jethro, Jenny." Their happiness was infectious, and that coupled with Mike's joy just caused an exponential increase until their cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

--

Abby walked in to Gibbs' kitchen area after a long and gruelling day at work. Most of the team had left NCIS hours before her since she had to go over the forensics from _every_ other team too, and they had all come here to write down renovation ideas on the 'inspiration table' that was laid out in the kitchen for everyone to add to. Since nearly all of the agents at NCIS who had been there during Jenny's directorship had agreed to give up the betting pool money, they had decided to get as many ideas as possible from everyone involved for every room, so they could set a budget for each room. As of yesterday, they had gotten twelve suggestions for the babies' room and a couple for all of the others. She trudged in and walked over to the paper. _Whoa, we're going to need bigger paper_. There were lots more suggestions for each room, even a few for banister materials. She grinned at the attention to detail all of her family were putting into this huge project. They were really all pulling together and it made her very proud.

McGee walked into the room behind her and flopped down next to the coffee maker, flicking it on with his elbow and then dropping his head on the counter. They'd had a nasty case while Gibbs has been away. It may have only been a few days, but murderers keep their own schedule. The house renovations would take longer than the one week they had initially thought, especially since most of their fellow agents couldn't commit time to them, since they had their own families and functions to go to. Plus they would need to hire in a plumber for the bathroom and the kitchen, and possibly an electrician if Abby's wall sconce idea became part of the finished design. Yes, it was beginning to look like a _much_ longer job than they had realised.

Abby walked over to McGee's side and put her hands on his shoulders, mimicking the moves that Kate used to do for her when she was tense. The massage did the trick, and soon Tim groaned happily and rolled his head, enjoying the feel of the painless and fluid motion. In a split second decision, McGee reached behind him and pulled Abby around to the front of him. The backs of her legs hit his and she ended up sat on his lap, giggling at his behaviour. He grinned at her and pulled her in for a hug, rubbing her back softly.

"We'll get it done Abby, don't worry about it. What did Gibbs say about what we are doing?" Abby chuckled as she recalled her conversation with him and the one part that stuck in her mind. _Don't touch the basement, Abs. I mean it! _She relayed the entire conversation to McGee and they laughed together at her 'panicked Gibbs' impression.

"He sounded really happy, Timmy. I can't wait to see him, Jenny and the twins; it's going to be magical. Eventually." She added, her smile faltering as she looked around the dusty kitchen interior. They had yet to start moving the furniture out of the rooms, and Gibbs had given specific instructions to not throw away a few things. Abby was going to get Tony and Timmy to move all of the 'keep' furniture in to the basement so no one could accidentally trash it.

"Tomorrow is the weekend Abs, we can start then. Once the rooms are bare, you can decide what ideas you want to use for each room. It'll be easier to visualise it that way." She nodded and hugged McGee tighter, simply enjoying the embrace. The sound of laughing voices echoed down the stairs, reminding them Tony and Ziva were upstairs and that McGee had yet to make the coffee. Abby reluctantly pulled out of the hug, wondering why they couldn't be like this all of the time and then made a life changing decision. They could be.

"Don't move Timmy." McGee's eyes went wide and he froze, expecting a spider to suddenly appear on his shoulder.

"Why? What's wrong?" he asked shakily. Abby grinned and put him out of his misery. She reached for his face and framed it in her hands. McGee's eyes snapped back to hers and he barely had time to register what was about to happen, when Abby leaned forward and gently gave him a kiss on the lips. She pulled back slightly when he didn't react, thinking he must not really feel the same, when Tim found his initiative and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back to him and pressing his lips to hers more fiercely, unwilling to let go of the dream he had strayed into. The real Abby wouldn't have kissed him, she wouldn't be straddling his lap and pressing herself more fully into him, her tongue wouldn't be duelling with his in the deepest and sweetest kiss of his entire life. Right?

"Well, that's not the kind of coffee we expected you to be making, Probie." Tony and Ziva stood in the doorway and watched as Tim and Abby paused only to make rude gestures at them and then completely ignored them. "Probie must have done some growing up these last few months." Ziva grinned and slipped her hand into his, leaning up against him and whispering into his ear.

"We made our own 'coffee' upstairs already and they didn't disturb us. Let us give them the same privacy." Tony nodded and they turned around and went back upstairs to actually do some work. Maybe.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except; Dr. Hale, Julian, Lydia, Alexis and Faith.

It was another four weeks before Jenny was able to leave her room under her own power, the drugs she was injected with once a week finally beating back and destroying the disease, so she was able to undergo strengthening physio. Jethro and Mike had brought the twins down into her room as soon as Dr. Hale gave them the 'Ok', so Jenny had a goal in sight during the physio; to get out of bed, walk to her daughters' incubators and pick them up. There were many false starts and failed journeys, where Jethro had to carry her back to bed. She had been very angry during this time; she hated that she couldn't walk and had to rely on other people to carry her around, and for an independent person like her, it was practically torture. With nothing better to do all day, she constantly worked on her stamina so she could make it all the way across the room and back to her bed, before trying to pick up one of her daughters. She accomplished this goal before the end of the fifth week, and now that the drugs were out of her system, she was finally able to breast feed her girls. Since the twins were eight months old, they had finished developing a stomach and digestive tract so they were able to eat. Faith and Alexis were perfectly healthy according to Dr. Hale, everything was developing as it should and there were no foreseeable problems for later life. They were getting bigger too, though they would always be smaller than other children. This knowledge seemed to put the entire 'family' on edge around them, knowing as they did that the girls would be weaker for a time too.

Lydia helped Jenny to hold the babies' correctly while they were eating, as well as showing her how to burp them, and answering all of Jenny's questions about motherhood and the problems babies and first time mothers usually went through, which was mainly the first baby illness, which was usually a cold or an ear infection. Jenny knew she could probably ask Jethro about all of that, but something in her didn't want to look so helpless around her own girl's in front of her fiancé. This was supposed to be instinctive to her, but she found that missing the pregnancy had given her an emotional distance from the twins, which scared her. What if she stopped caring? What if she stopped loving them? What if they weren't really hers? Intellectually she knew that no one would play such a sick joke on her, put emotionally she couldn't help but worry. Bonding with the babies during breast feeding was helping her to get over it, but she was realising that she didn't want to miss anything else about them. She wanted to experience it all, the first word, the first crawl, the first bout of crying that nothing seems to calm them from, everything.

* * *

Two months passed since Jenny woke up and the girls were born, before they were able to leave the hospital. They had decided to take a boat to America to try and avoid the media that would be guaranteed to be milling around at the airports, so they drove to the German coast. They wanted Jenny and the girls to stay a secret for a little longer so they could settle in. Mike and Jethro rented a boat and they said goodbye to Julian and Lydia, whose time with the hospital was not over yet, since Lydia had a one year contract. Mike's goodbye with them was the most heartfelt of all, since without them he would never have been able to save Jenny, let alone the babies.

"I'll see you soon, hopefully before your contract is up. We can go back to the USA together then." He hugged Lydia and shook Julian's hand. "Thank you both; I couldn't have done this without you. You were my rocks throughout these past eight months and I know the only reason I'm still sane is because of you." Julian wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders and pulled her to his side, the both of them grinning like fools because Mike was being mushy with them. Lydia spoke up when Mike stopped talking.

"You're welcome Mike, it was a pleasure. You would have done the same for us; you have already demonstrated that with Dilly. We owed you, and we'd do it again." He nodded sharply, a strange prickling at the back of his eyes at their words causing him to drop into his normal Mike-ness.

"Get going you two, can't have the hospital security accusing us of abducting you." They smiled at him and Lydia wiped her eyes. "Go on, get!" the two turned from the marina and walked back to their car, waving at the group as the boat pulled away from the jetty and sailed swiftly away from Germany and towards the USA; home.

* * *

Abby paced the living room at the Gibbs household impatiently, waiting for the new family to walk through the door. She couldn't wait to see their faces! The renovations had been not as expensive, but a little more extensive than first planned; the electrician had had to put large holes and troughs in the wall to hide the rewiring for the sconces, the new light fittings, the new plug sockets in the kitchen and the electric shower. They had consequently had to get a plasterer in to go over all of the holes, so they had been forced to repaint the rooms. The plumber, whom they needed so they could put in a new shower, sink, toilet and bath in the bathroom and the new taps in the kitchen that the washing machine and dishwasher required, had taken a whole _week_ longer than necessary to actually _turn_ _up_. Abby had been reduced to tears, thinking that they wouldn't be done in time for the arrival of Gibbs, Jenny and the babies. Tony, Ziva and McGee had in the end gone down to the local plumbers and removed him bodily from the shop, bringing him to the house under threat of paying only half of the money the work would need, since he had been messing them around for so long. Work had commenced very quickly after that. 150 colleagues from NCIS had been able to help them intermittently, so the actual painting and decorating, which included putting down carpeting, had been done in four days. Getting the furniture and setting it all up in the correct rooms had taken only slightly longer, since Abby had wanted everything to be perfect.

From the outside, the house looked much like it had always done, but that was just for the surprise. They had a replacement front door waiting to be put in once Gibbs was home. His word on whether he wanted it was crucial, since they knew this was the house he had shared with Shannon and Kelly. They didn't want to destroy or move all of his memories of them, so they were prepared to take the door back if that was what he wanted. The back garden had been cleared of little pieces of debris and weeds so they could take the girls' out back once they were old enough to crawl. A few of their colleagues were good at horticulture, so they had planted some raised beds of pretty and bright flowers and a few evergreens to brighten up the outside. No one touched one of the flower beds, the one that Gibbs had instructed Abby to not touch, to not even sneeze at. She was sure he was joking, but had warned everyone just in case. It looked beautiful out there, and they had held a little 'It's done' party when it was sunny.

"Abs, sit down. They'll be here soon, don't wear yourself out." McGee walked into the room from the kitchen, holding a tray of coffee cups for everyone and a tea for Ducky. They were using the old coffee machine, since they didn't want to use the new stuff before the people it was intended for had the chance.

"I can't Timmy; this is the moment we've been waiting two whole months for. I can't wait to see Gibbs. I can't wait to see Jenny again. I can't wait to see the baby Gibblets!" She stopped pacing and began jumping on the spot excitedly. McGee shook his head and smiled, placing the tray on the coffee table and then turning to take Abby in his arms. She stopped jumping and hugged him back fiercely, burying her head in her lover's chest. She sighed and then pouted, recognising the calming effect he was deliberately having on her. "Oh alright. I'll have some coffee." She pulled from his embrace and sat on the couch next to Ziva, casting a mock glare at McGee. Ziva chuckled and curled further into the hold of the unusually quiet Tony.

"What is eating you, Tony?" she asked gently, whispering in his ear. He looked at her and kissed her forehead distractedly.

"You are all I have ever wanted for so long now, and almost as soon as we hear Jenny is alive, that Gibbs is going to be ok and everything will be going back to how it was before, our relationship developed. I guess I'm just hoping I'm not going to wake up. I mean, this all seems so perfect." Ziva smiled and took his face in her hands, forcing him to look in to her eyes.

"Perfect is _not_ a bad thing Tony. It is only short lived in the movies, for the sake of drama and ratings. There is no higher being directing us to destroy our lives here; our perfection will not go away unless _we_ want it to." She smiled again and stroked her thumb across his lips. "Do you want this to go away?" He shook his head vigorously and mirrored her actions by cupping her face in his hands.

"No. Never. I'll never let you go." They kissed softly, aware of the others in the room, but not letting that fact affect their expression of love. Ducky looked on, smiling happily for his friends. They all seem to have found their perfect other. He sighed contentedly and reached down for his cup of tea, wondering how long it would take for them to become hyper again. Suddenly Abby sat bolt upright and stared towards the front door, just as a car door slammed outside.

* * *

Jenny woke up on the back seat of Gibbs' car, the girls both strapped in to a carrier each, which were strapped into the car on either side of her, Mike and Jethro both in the front. Faith and Alexis were both asleep, their little fingers clenching and then dancing as they dreamed, the car journey obviously having a wonderfully calming effect on them. Jenny groaned softly, the beginnings of a headache forming from her slight dehydration. The last thing she remembered was feeding the twins, and then she must have fallen asleep before she could have a drink of water herself. Mike looked back in the car and smiled at her.

"Hey sleeping beauty. You ok? You look a little ill." His concerned voice made Jethro look up sharply into the rear-view mirror, his eyes raking over her for a moment, before flickering back to the road. She smirked back at Mike and shrugged.

"I'm fine, just thirsty." Mike nodded and then gestured to behind his seat.

"There's a fruit juice by your feet. We stopped at a gas station and I got some supplies." She nodded gratefully and bent down to grab the bottle, opening it and making short work of the contents. Mike's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline and he let out a short laugh.

"I guess you were really thirsty. Well we're almost there now, so sit back and enjoy the ride." He winked and she rolled her eyes playfully.

"That's what Jethro said nine months ago." Mike guffawed up front and bumped Gibbs' arm with his fist. Jethro glared at Mike and then Jenny.

"At least what I said was coherent." He said smartly. Mike bent double with laughter, until he found it difficult to breathe and he had to take deep breaths. He couldn't look at either of them without breaking into a chuckle. "Alright, we're here." Gibbs parked the car and then they all looked up at his house. It didn't look any different, but Mike and he knew that the team had changed the inside, Jenny didn't. Gibbs and Mike got out and then helped to get the girls out of the car, each taking a baby carrier and giving Jenny a hand to hold. They walked slowly up the driveway and up to the front door, pulling Jenny between them and then pushing her to go through the door first. She raised an eyebrow at their behaviour, but turned the door handle and pushed open the door, gasping at the sight that met her eyes.

The hallway had been repainted, the walls were a soft biscuit beige colour, with a honey kick, and the floor was both wood and carpet. The wood was pine, heavily varnished so it shone a honey colour and extended four feet from the door, where a mocha carpet began, running all of the way down the hall and up the stairs. Several pairs of shoes were already lined up on the farthest edge of the wood, so Jenny pulled off hers and wandered down the hall. The first room she encountered was the kitchen.

The floor had a soft dark forest green carpet covering it up to two feet from the kitchen counters, there the varnished, honey coloured pine once again made an appearance, so that spills would not fall on the carpet. The heavy varnish also filled in the grooves so that the wood was smooth. Three walls in here were white, with a feature wall which was a lighter forest green than the carpet, and a honey kick and crown. The cooker, dish washer, microwave, coffee machine, washing machine and fridge freezer were all a shiny black colour, and pine counters with black slate counter tops separated them, and there were white blinds over the windows. In the carpeted area there was a large honey pine table and six matching chairs, plus two white baby high chairs, with green coloured padding to match the décor. Jenny was amazed. She would never have expected anything like this; she had been anticipating moving old things around to fit the girls and herself in the house. This was all so wonderful. Mike wandered in with Faith, and he looked around impressed. Tears ran down Jenny's cheeks and she threw herself into Jethro's arms once he appeared by her side. He chuckled and hugged her tight.

"Do you like it?" she nodded into his chest and pulled away to take the baby carrier from his hands, careful not to wake Alexis. She looked around again and then turned back to him.

"How?" she asked softly, not sure how he could have accomplished all this, when he had been with her for the past two months.

"The team. They're all in the living room waiting for us." He gestured to the hall and she threaded her arm through his, pulling him towards her extended family. They walked quickly through the kitchen and back out into the hall, then they rounded the corner to the living room and saw the most wonderful sight. The team were all watching them, huge smiles on their faces and barely restraining Abby, who had tried to jump up and crush them in a hug the moment they had walked through the front door. They were trying to give Jenny and Gibbs time to take in all of the changes before swamping them in hugs.

Jenny and Jethro's eyes widened at what had happened to the living room. It had a TV. An actual physical silver flat screen TV. The walls were white with a sky blue feature wall behind the TV. The kick was still a honey colour and the carpet was a deep navy blue. The walls had silver wall sconces dotted around, giving the room a lovely, homey feel when the main light was off, which it was. There were navy blue curtains with white swirls on them at the window, tied back with white cords. There was a honey varnished pine coffee table in front of, and surrounded by, a black three piece suite (A couch and two chairs) and a photo album was laid on the coffee table, with 'Renovations' written on it. Tony had taken many pictures of each stage of the renovations and he had put them all in the album. Others that had taken pictures had then added their own to it and they had quickly filled the album. There was honey pine cabinets lining the far white wall, containing a small collection of DVD's and books, and a few picture frames were on the shelves, showing various pictures of the team. The TV was sitting on top of a honey pine cabinet, with doors concealing the DVD player and space for other consoles that they would more than likely get when the girls were older, or if the team brought one round.

Rendered speechless by the enormity of the task the team had undergone for them, Jenny and Jethro simply opened their arms, and Ziva released Abby, who ran shrieking happily into their arms. Mike took Alexis and brought her and Faith over to the coffee table, where he and Ducky admired them, whilst the rest of the team jumped up and rushed to get into the huge family embrace.

"I- I can't believe all this! Thank you all, so much. When you said you were going to renovate the place I never expected anything like this!" Gibbs said astounded by what they had managed to accomplish in his rundown, dirty old house. He pulled Jenny closer to him and she wiped her eyes, temporarily unable to speak. The team laughed happily; surprised they had rendered her speechless and very glad that they liked it. It was incredible to see her alive, especially for Tony and Ziva, who had been the most affected by her death, because they blamed themselves for it. They had found her dead body; they were supposed to be her protection. Jenny seemed to read their thoughts and opened her arms to them, taking them both in a tight hug, holding them fast to her. She kissed their cheeks and whispered to them.

"I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you, but I know you've been hurt. I survived the trip to Germany by boat, but if Mike hadn't taken me away, you _would _have found me alive. You would have saved me." They tightened their hold on her and then released her, joining hands and smiling. She grinned back, taking in their new, closer stance and biting her lip, waiting for the explosion from Gibbs. It didn't come. He simply hugged Jenny to his side as McGee pulled Abby to him and then looked around.

"I guess rule 12 was kind of impractical." He decided. Jenny nodded emphatically.

"I preferred the first one; 'Always carry an extra gun clip'. It made more sense."

"You haven't seen the rest of the house yet!" Abby giggled, nervously tugging her pig tails.

"No time like the present." Mike said, making shooing gestures at them, making Faith laugh. All eyes turned to the baby that had managed to pass by their notice, and then they spotted the other one. They all converged on the tiny little angels and started to gush over them, allowing Jenny and Jethro to slip away unnoticed and see their new house alone.

The last room on the ground floor had been a junk room, but now it was a study. It had a wooden honey pine floor, with two desks facing each other by the window, so both Jenny and Gibbs could work there and both have the same view. There were a few book cases and a drinks cabinet, as well as some drawers, to store paperwork and other things. Both desks had room for a computer, but only one had one, since they hadn't wanted to spend all of the money on electronic equipment. There was a sound system on one of the drawers, so they could listen to some music while they worked, and gold wall sconces on the walls. The curtains in this room were solid burgundy, with gold cords holding them open. It was incredibly reminiscent of the study from her house, so much so that she closed her eyes and imagined she was back at home. This house was a big transition for her, but she knew she could make it. They turned around and walked out, taking the stairs up to the top floor. The hall was the same as the one downstairs, and there were four doors up here.

The bathroom was the first room they came to on the top floor. It was mainly white tile, with teal patterns on some of them that were scattered between the normal white. The bath, sink, toilet and shower cubicle were all white, with teal soap, towel rail, toilet roll holder, toilet brush, baby bath and bath carpet. There was a honey pine cabinet in there which held toiletries and different sizes of towels in each drawer. Most towels were white, with a few teal interspersed between them. There were a few silver wall sconces, casting a relaxing glow over the bathroom. The brighter, normal light was still there, which would be useful for waking up in a morning. They moved on to the next room.

The guest bedroom was the second room on the top floor, and it had a yellow feature wall, the others were white. The crown and kick were honey pine as was the wardrobes and chests of drawers that lined the wall. The bed was honey pine, with white pillows and a white quilt cover with yellow swirls covering it, the direct opposite of the curtains, which were yellow with white swirls, tied back by white cords. The carpet was a honey colour to match the kick and crown. This room was quite bare, although that was to be expected of a guest room. They walked back out and closed the door behind them.

The girls' room was the third room on the top floor. Two of the walls were white, while the other two were lilac, the walls of the same colour were opposite each other, so the colour was split up and the room looked bigger and brighter. The kick and crown was white, as were the cribs in the centre of the room and there were silver wall sconces, which would come in very handy in the next few months especially, for putting the girls' to sleep. The carpet was a lavender colour, as was the curtains, which had white circles on them and they were held back with white cords. The bedding in the cribs was lilac and the cabinets in the room were honey pine. The nappies and baby clothes and supplies were all hidden away in those cabinets. There was a honey pine changing table, with a lilac and white covering standing by the door, next to the cabinets. Both cribs had white mobiles hanging over them and a large white teddy bear lying on top of the bedding. There was a twin pram and a couple of baby bouncers in a corner, waiting to be put to use. Jenny had to cover her mouth to stop herself from bursting out in tears again, this was all so beautiful. They had thought of everything. She walked to one of the drawers and opened it, looking at the little tiny outfits lined up in there.

"I don't believe it." she said, shaking her head in amazement and then wandering back to Jethro.

"Yeah, they did good." He agreed, picking up one of the little white teddies and waving its paw at her.

"I was half expecting pink in here." She grinned, wincing at the thought of an entirely pink room. Gibbs rolled his eyes and kissed her cheeks.

"Abby has taste, Jen." He mumbled against her lips before pulling her in for a deep kiss. She chuckled at him when she pulled back and then took his hand, leading him out of the twins' room and down the hall to the last door.

Jenny and Gibbs' room was the last room on the top floor. Three walls were white, with the last being a feature wall of deep red, with honey kicks. The carpet was crimson as were the curtains, which had white loops on them and white cords holding them tied back. The bed was honey pine, with white pillows and a white quilt cover, with red loops covering them. The honey pine wardrobes covered one wall, which didn't matter too much as this was the largest room, and there were a couple of chests of drawers on the other two walls and a vanity by the window. There were silver wall sconces in here too, which would cast a sultry light on the seductive red of the room. Jenny sighed, it was the perfect house. She couldn't imagine much more that could make it better. She walked over to the wardrobes and opened the doors, staring in shock at the brand new women's clothing hanging there, new shoes sitting at the bottom in a line. They had even thought of getting clothes for her. It was the final blow to her control and she sank to the carpet in a tearful puddle, happiness overwhelming her so completely that she couldn't stop crying to tell Gibbs she wasn't upset. He cuddled her on the floor until she could speak, which took a few minutes.

"It's incredible; I don't know what to say to them. This must have taken so long to do. It's perfect." She shook her head and wiped her eyes. Jethro picked her up off the floor and carried her to the door. She had slept during the way here, but she was getting tired again. The pleasure of seeing what they had done to the house was taking its toll, and she felt drained.

"Let's go down and be with our family." She nodded against his neck and wriggled so he would put her down. He did so and they walked out of the bedroom and then down the stairs to the living room. Two new visitors had arrived while they had been upstairs, Leon Vance and the Sec-Nav. They turned as Jenny and Jethro approached them and the Sec-Nav walked over to give her a hug, while Leon gave Gibbs a handshake.

"You have two beautiful little girls." Leon said, a genuine smile gracing his features, reminding them he had two children of his own. He nodded to them and then stood aside so the Sec-Nav could speak to them first.

"It is so good to see you two, especially you, Jennifer." He gave her a once over and noticed she seemed tired, but healthy. "Well, you seem to be in good health now, has your illness been defeated?"

"Yes, it's gone. The treatments were rather harsh on my body but it was worth it." he nodded and then leaned forward in a conspiratorial whisper.

"So when do you think you will be returning to work?" Jenny's eyes widened, she hadn't thought she would still have a job at NCIS; in fact, she had become very used to the idea of staying home with her children.

"I'm not sure if I will be sir. I've just started recovering from being shot, having twins and being in a coma, never mind the fact that I was dying of a disease and the treatments to save me were rather radical and experimental. I'm not sure if I would feel up to it for months, but more importantly, I'm not even sure if I want to. I missed the entire pregnancy, feeling them grow inside me, feeling them move, getting used to the thought of having a family, all of it passed me by. Now I have the chance to watch my girls' grow, to see their first crawl, to hear their first words, to bond with them in the way that was denied me before. I don't want to miss that, I don't want to miss anything." His eyes widened slightly before a smile formed on his lips. He understood, his wife had the same mentality when their children had been young.

"Rain check?" he asked gently, not about to tell her what to do with her own life, especially not now she had something to go home to, someone to love, a family. She agreed with his question, not at all sure she would change her mind, even after a few months.

"In six months." She said, watching him accept her words, and wondering if he would bother. Leon could have grown on him, shown him his worth as Director and he may not want her back. Well that was fine to her, if she became restless; she could always get a home job. The Sec-Nav nodded and then shook their hands again, before taking his leave of the gathering, his schedule not allowing a longer stay. They watched him leave and then turned to Leon.

"I come in peace." He said, holding up his hands and walking forwards. "I also came to give you this." He passed her an envelope and watched her open it, telling her what it was while he did so. "Once I learned you were alive, I enquired with your insurance company about if your house was insured against accidental fire and arson, since I was made to do so when I became Director, amongst other things. It was and they are prepared to pay out _that_ amount." He said pointing to the number printed on the cheque. "It is less than what your house and contents were worth at your last valuating though, so I asked the Sec-Nav if he would approve something else." He gestured to a second piece of paper under the first. "Since it was NCIS Agents that burned down your house, NCIS will make up the rest of the amount from that valuation." Jenny looked at him owlishly, her mouth working, but nothing coming out. Jethro squeezed her hand and she finally found her voice.

"Leon… I don't know what to say… thank you." he grinned at her and then walked to the door, toothpick magically appearing in hand.

"That's all I need to hear. Good luck with motherhood Jenny. I'll see the rest of you at the office." he walked out of the house and the silence from the team was broken.

"Oh my god, I can't believe Vance has a heart." Tony said loudly, causing everyone to laugh.

"Anthony." Ducky admonished and tony put up his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry Ducky, but did _you_ ever even suspect he would do something nice for his rival?" Ducky shook his head and then tickled Alexis' tummy, making baby laughter sound through the house. Faith joined in as Mike tickled her and the family all crowded around the twins. Ziva and Tony cuddled up on the couch next to Jenny and Jethro, while Abby and Tim sat on the floor. Ducky sat in one chair with Alexis and Mike sat in the other with Faith. Ducky looked up at the Gibbs family unit and sighed happily.

"Welcome home."

* * *

A.N.: The end! I hope you have all enjoyed reading this story, as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thank you so much everyone who has reviewed this story and thank you those who voted in my poll. badprobiemcgee; I hope this is open ended enough, although I'm not sure if I will write a sequel. I don't want to write a sequel for the sake of writing something; I'll want to wait until I can think of a plausible story arc. I will consider it though!


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